The creative team of the project spent two full shooting days, one of which was organized at the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine, the second – in the Ukrainian Carpathians – in the village of Kryvorivnia, Verkhovyna district, Ivano-Frankivsk region.
The feature film “Vincenz” is an upcoming large-scale biopic of Polish-Ukrainian production. The script of the 2018 film was created by Ukrainian playwrights Natalia Vorozhbyt (“Cyborgs”) and Max Kurochkin with the support of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts. The pre-production project is implemented by the NGO “All-Ukrainian Democratic Forum” with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation.
The plot of the future full-length film is based on the life story of the Polish writer Stanisław Vincenz – the “Homer” of Hutsul Region, the author of the Hutsul epic “On the High Uplands”. The director is Polish cinematographer Jan Kidawa-Blonski, laureate of the Cannes Film Festival (Fipressi Award for the film “Rose”, Golden Eagles Award for the film “Stars”).
The teaser of the upcoming film touches on several key scenes from the life of Stanisław Vincenz, a Pole with a Hutsul heart. In particular, the childhood memories of the writer are reproduced – upbringing by a nanny-hutsulka, dramatic romance of relations with two women, writing a book. The central scene of the teaser is the escape on foot abroad – to Hungary, which Vincenz made together with both wives and children from two marriages, accompanied by a molfar, when he began to be seriously threatened by the machine of Soviet repression.
The role of Stanisław Vincenz in the teaser is played by Ukrainian actor Oleg Drach. Ukrainian folk star Nina Matvienko, People’s Artist of Ukraine, plays Stanisław Vincenz’s nanny. In the role of Vincenz’s wife Irena – Maria Gurska, host of the Espreso TV channel, star of the Polish film “Daughters of Happiness” directed by Marta Mesaros. The first wife, Lena, is played by Ukrainian actress Halyna Svyat. Hutsul – Yevhen Malukha. Vincenz Barbara’s daughter is 4-year-old Vera Gorda. Andrzej – Danylo Bochkov, Stas – Oleksiy Servetnikov, little Stanislav – Timofey Isaev. Hutsul – Yevhen Malukha.
The line producer of the film is Anna Palenchuk, a leader in co-production in the domestic cinema (co-production company “Estalgia” – dir. D. Onyshchenko (Ukraine-Germany-Serbia), “Mariupolis”, dir. Mantas Kvedaravicius (Lithuania-Ukraine-Germany-France), “Numbers” dir. O. Sentsov, A-Seitablayev (Ukraine-Poland), d/f “Ridni” directed by V. Manskyi (Ukraine-Germany-Estonia-Latvia) and others). The second producer is Mykola Shevchenko (“Stolen Happiness”, directed by A. Donchyk).
The teaser of the feature film “Vincenz”, which is realized with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation of the NGO “All-Ukrainian Democratic Forum”, will be ready at the end of October – post-production is underway. At the same time, the creative team of the project is completing work on sketches of scenery and costumes for the upcoming film and performing other tasks within the framework of the project.
Work on the full-length film will begin in 2020 on the basis of pre-production, carried out with the support of the UKF.
