Hoffman's trilogy up for completion
After 30 years Polish director Jerzy Hoffman is about to complete his
trilogy based on the work of Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz, shooting
Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword), on a $8 million budget - 15 times
the costs of an average Polish feature.
Filming the first part in 1968, Hoffman continued with Potop (The Deluge),
which still holds the all-time Polish box-office record with 25 million
admissions, before winning an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Feature.
Starring Goldeneye James Bond girl Izabella Scorupco, Michal Zebrowski,
Alexander Domogarov and Bohdan S Stupka, Ogniem i mieczem depicts a love
story set against the backdrop of a Cossack uprising in 17th-century Ukraine,
then under Polish rule.
Unnpalatable to a communist regime, the script was readied 11 years
ago. Hoffman and producer Jerzy R Michaluk have set up the film as a Zodiak
Jerzy Hoffman production, in collaboration with, among others, Polish TV,
Kredyt Bank, Okocim Breweries and Universal SA.
Ogniem i mieczem is also the first Polish film ever to attach a publicity
company, a website (http://ogniem_i_mieczem.com.pl), and to announce the
25 January 1999 gala premiere a year ahead. At the Berlinale, international
promotion is handled by Stefan Laudyn.
Jrn Rossing Jensen
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