Campion Brings Bright Star to Krakow

In defiance of the volcanic pandemonium, celebrated director Jane Campion spent 22 hours on the road in a bid to make the Off Plus Camera Film Festival.

“I’m very pleased to be here,” she said after her breakneck odyssey from Rome to Krakow. “I think it’s a fantastic city. It’s completely enchanting. I was walking around yesterday as if in a dream.”

The New Zealand filmmaker is in town for the Polish premiere of her new film, Bright Star, a period piece that looks at the doomed love affair between Romantic poet John Keats and well-to-do young lady Fanny Brawne.

“It’s a film I’m very proud of,” she told journalists in the Pod Baranami Palace, Wednesday morning. “I’m looking forward to sharing it with a Polish audience.”

Jane Campion first came to international prominence with her multi-award-winning film The Piano (1993). Bright Star is being shown as part of a full retrospective of her work, and yesterday she was given a special “Against the Current” award for her achievements in independent cinema.

The director admits that before making Bright Star, she “didn’t understand” poetry. However, she was drawn into the story by the “courageous” love letters that Keats wrote to Miss Brawne.

Bright Star is showing at the Off Plus Camera Festival. It will go on general release in Poland on 14 May.