Veteran Director Eyes 3D Victory

Jerzy Hoffman, chiefly known for his adaption of Sienkiewicz’s swashbuckling Trilogy (something akin to a Polish Three Musketeers) will begin filming in June.

The director, who turns 80 next year, will shoot the film in 3D. The job is being entrusted to one of Poland’s finest cinematographers, Sławomir Idziak, a former collaborator of Kieślowski who has a string of Hollywood hits to his credit, including Gattaca, Black Hawk Dawn and Harry Potter and the Order of the Golden Phoenix.

The Battle of Warsaw 1920 focuses on the repulse of the Red Army from the gates of the capital. The victory has passed into national myth as “The Miracle on the Vistula.” Suffice it to say, like Katyń, the subject was highly taboo during the post-1945 Soviet era.

Hoffman is aiming to engage the younger generation in the film, as he feels that the clash has yet to capture the imagination of those viewers, “in spite of the efforts of historians and publicists.

“The film will relate extreme episodes, because those were extreme times,” Hoffman says.