Missing WWII submarine saga destined for silver screen
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
19.09.2014 00:02
Poland's acting ministers of culture and defence have revealed plans for both a feature film and a television series about the WWII Orzel (Eagle) submarine and its mysterious fate.
Acting Minister Of Culture Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska (L), fillm director Jan Kidawa-Blonski and Acting Minister of Defence Tomasz Siemoniak. Photo: PAP/Adam Warzawa
Details of the projects, which will be made by public broadcaster TVP, were revealed at the 39th Gdynia Film Festival.
ORP Orzel was the Polish navy's most sophisticated submarine, and its crew orchestrated an audacious escape from nominally neutral Estonia in September 1939, despite having been placed under guard at Nazi Germany's request.
The crew managed to reach Scotland, from where the submarine was dispatched on missions into the Baltic.
In June 1940, on her seventh patrol, the vessel disappeared and it has never been located since.
ORP Orzel: wikipedia
Acting minister of defence Tomasz Siemoniak noted that the history of the Polish armed forces is peppered with exceptional stories, which “film-makers and screenwriters can seize in great handfuls.”
Malgorzata Omilanowska, acting minister of culture, claimed that the film and TV series could inspire “modern patriotism.”
The projects will be realised under the baton of award-winning director Jan Kidawa-Blonski (Little Rose), and shooting is set to begin at the beginning of 2015.
A new cabinet is set to be approved by President Bronislaw Komorowski on Friday morning. (nh)
Source: PAP