Berlin: Polish Film Commissions Draw Int’l Productions with Value

Polish bizzers are feeling bullish about a surge in international productions over the past year, witnessing the highest demand the country has seen in years, much of it driven by smallscreen skeins and arriving from every direction of the compass.

Polish expat Roman Polanski is also headed back to his native country from his home in France later this year to shoot an account of the Dreyfus Affair, says Polish film commissioner Tomasz Dabrowski, with the working title “D.” The script by Robert Harris follows one of the greatest scandals in French military history: the persecution of a Jewish officer who was later exonerated. Longtime Polanski cohort Robert Benmussa is producing.

Another major player Poland has lured back is Steven Spielberg, whose untitled Cold War spy thriller project lensed in Wroclaw. Employing the support of the Wroclaw Film Commission, he shot not far from the historic Krakow locations he used in 1993 for “Schindler’s List.”

The Lodz Film Commission, for one, had a busy 2014, helping to facilitate several international projects as well as Brendan Maher’s “The Passing Bells,” a historic joint series from the BBC and Polish pubcaster TVP. Series shot south of the city in the picturesque village of Ksiezy Mlyn, standing in for a WWI-era British town.

The city’s Izrael Poznanski Palace and Grand Hotel also served as backdrops for Cellin Gluck’s historical drama “Persona Non Grata,” produced by Japan’s Cine Bazar and Polish partner Akson Studio (“Warsaw 44,” “Walesa: Man of Hope”).

Despite Poland’s lack of cash-back production incentives, says Gluck, “The talent pool, both in terms of actors as well as technicians that Poland has, more than makes up for its absence.”

Dariusz Jablonski of Poland’s Apple Film, which was instrumental in bringing the BBC, the U.K.’s Red Planet Pictures and TVP together on “Bells,” says the relationship seems to be blooming, and more such international TV productions are under negotiations. But, he adds, “We don’t forget about our film roots,” citing the Berlinale’s booking of Polish-Russian-Ukrainian production “Under Electric Clouds,” a theatrical drama done with TVP.

And although the Polish Film Commission continues to lobby for an incentives system, foreign productions have found that the math makes for serious bargains even now, according to the org’s Dabrow­ski. Founded in 2012 by the Polish Film Institute and local bizzers, the body was created to serve as the point of contact for non-Polish producers, helping them navigate their way through a varied array of location options and regional funds eager to assist with projects from abroad.

Bollywood has also been investing in Poland, with 2014’s “Kick,” a comedy thriller starring Indian action king Salman Khan, and 2015 laffer “Bangistan,” starring Riteish Deshmukh and Pulkit Samrat and helmed by Karan Anshuman, both shooting in the country with Film Polska Prods., a specialist at teaming with South Asian and Middle Eastern partners.

The shingle has also been busy with “Saleem,” a United Arab Emirates TV drama.

Also shooting is the French production “Innocent,” another true war story helmed by Anne Fontaine and produced with Poland’s Aeroplan Film, France’s Mandarin Cinema, Mars Films, France 2 Cinema and Belgium’s Scope Pictures.

In a year in which Poland was minority partner more often than majority partner in co-productions, the formula seems to be holding up well.

“We’ve managed to put Poland on the map,” Dabrowski says, winning over more biz than ever for its “cross-effective advantages.”

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