A JERZY SKOLIMOWSKI FILM

Transcription

1 A JERZY SKOLIMOWSKI FILM

2 From the acclaimed director of ESSENTIAL KILLING (Venice Grand Jury Prize) MOONLIGHTING (Cannes Best Screenplay) THE DEPARTURE (Berlin Golden Bear) THE SHOUT (Cannes Grand Jury Prize) and THE LIGHTSHIP (Venice Special Jury Prize/Best Director) SYNOPSIS A jealous husband out of control, his sexy actress wife, a sleazy Hollywood director, a reckless drug messenger, a disoriented young woman, an ex-con hot dog vendor, a troubled student on a mysterious mission, a high-rise window cleaner on an illicit break, an elderly sketch artist, a hectic paramedics team and a group of hungry nuns. A cross-section of contemporary urbanites whose lives and loves intertwine. They live in an unsure world where anything could happen at any time. An unexpected chain of events can seal many fates in a mere 11 minutes.

3 COMMENTS FROM JERZY SKOLIMOWSKI NOTHING IS CERTAIN We tread on thin ice. We walk the edge of the abyss. Around every corner lurks the unforeseen, the unimaginable. The future is only in our imagination. Nothing is certain - the next day, the next hour, even the next minute. Everything could end abruptly, in the least expected way.

4 CYBER CEMETERY I had this idea that the prologue would be something akin to a cyber cemetery for our characters. We shot the opening sequence using common tools: a phone camera, a computer camera, a closed-circuit camera. I wanted to convey the feeling of intimacy, immediacy and the truth of authentic source material. The original concept involved having to do with simple, innocent objects outliving us like your wallet surviving an airplane crash in which you yourself perish. Today, with social media so prevalent, you might say a significant part of our afterlife is realized in the form of photographs or video footage existing independently in cyber space, or (paradoxically) in some cloud. THE UNDERLINING PASSAGE OF TIME In my initial idea for the film, time played an instrumental role. The script was written with rigid constraints in mind. I measured the action of the characters methodically and intended to present each story in real-life time. The action was to be contained, precisely, within 11 minutes, between 17:00 and 17:11. In the final shape of the film, loosening this rigidity of structure turned out to be more compelling. One can still, I hope, sense the underlining passage of time, but it is not instrumental to the emotional perception of the story. I ended up opting for the metaphor.

5 THE NUMBER 11 On a purely aesthetical level, the symmetry and simplicity of the number 11 somehow appeals to me. I m sure the number itself has some numerolological connotations, but honestly speaking, I never much cared to look into that. THE BANAL AND THE POIGNANT I ve always found constraints to be stimulating. In the case of 11 MINUTES, this additionally freed me from having to deal with conventional narrative devices. I really wasn t interested in following character arches or motivations, presenting plausible storylines and plot points, or thinking in terms of beginning, middle and end. My focus was on seeing my characters through a continuous series of almost abstract moments, as accidental and banal or poignant as only life can be. I enjoyed this strange mixture of the meaningful and the meaningless, of the relevant and the irrelevant. I was curious to see how the two blend together.

6 BETWEEN ORDER AND CHAOS We shot 11 MINUTES primarily in Warsaw, plus a week of shooting on the stage in Dublin and another week on the stage at Alvernia Studios near Cracow. The key to the selection was always pure production pragmatism. As to the location in Warsaw we have indeed considered all of the major squares here. We chose the location eventually seen in the film, Plac Grzybowski, because it provided the most jarring contrast between the old and the new, between order and chaos, the beautiful and the ugly. The square itself, or ideed the city, is never named (and there is no reason it should be), but I hope the location somehow conveys the experience of jagged, dynamic crossroads. With the unexpected lurking behind every corner. The character, as well as the common expectation of Polishness, are changing. Poland has over the course of the past twenty years really undergone a dramatic change.

7 JERZY SKOLIMOWSKI FILMOGRAPHY 11 MINUTES is Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski s new feature. His last film, ESSENTIAL KILLING won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Venice Film Festival, Best Film in Mar del Plata (Argentina), as well as several Polish Academy Awards (Golden Eagle). With over 20 films to his name, Skolimowski s work includes the Berlin Golden Bear winner LE DEPART, Cannes Grand Prize winner THE SHOUT, Cannes Best Screenplay winner and political drama MOONLIGHTING, Venice Fest Best Director/Special Jury Prize winner THE LIGHTSHIP, and the 2008 thriller FOUR NIGHTS WITH ANNA, which opened the Directors Fortnight in Cannes and won the Grand Jury Prize in Tokyo. Early in his career, Skolimowski was a writer on Roman Polanski s 1962 classic KNIFE IN THE WATER. As an actor, Skolimowski has appeared in EASTERN PROMISES, BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, MARS ATTACKS and THE AVENGERS. He is also an accomplished painter who has participated in the Venice Biennale and other exhibitions across Europe and the US MINUTES / 11 MINUT Director / Producer / Screenwriter 2010 ESSENTIAL KILLING Director / Producer / Screenwriter 2008 Four Nights with Anna / CZTERY NOCE Z ANNĄ Director / Producer / Screenwriter DOOR KEY / FERDYDURKE Director / Producer / Screenwriter / Actor 1989 Torrents of Spring / Actor 1985 The Lightship 1984 SUCCESS IS THE BEST REVENGE Director / Producer / Screenwriter 1982 Moonlighting / Actor 1981 Hands Up / RĘCE DO GÓRY / Actor 1978 The Shout 1972 King, Queen, Knave Director 1970 Deep End 1970 The Adventures of Gerard Director 1968 Dialogue (segment The Twenty-Year-Olds ) 1967 The Departure / LE DEPART 1966 Barrier / BARIERA 1965 Walkover / WALKOWER / Actor 1964 IDENTIFICATION MARKS: NONE / RYSOPIS / Actor

8 SKOPIA FILM was established in 2007 by Jerzy Skolimowski and Ewa Piaskowska. The company produced the last three Skolimowski titles: Four Nights with Anna, Essential Killing and 11 Minutes and was involved as co-producer in several independent Polish productions. Skopia Film also co-organizes the Poland Film Festival in Japan. ELEMENT PICTURES Element Pictures is run by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, with offices in Dublin and London, working across production, distribution, and exhibition. Element Pictures Distribution also handles Studio Canal s slate in Ireland as well as direct acquisitions. Element Pictures operates an online video on demand platform, Volta.ie, which focuses on the finest of Irish and international films. Additionally, Element runs and operates the Light House Cinema, one of Dublin s premiere art house cinemas.

9 11 MINUTES PRODUCTION MAIN CAST Film Director Husband Wife Hot Dog Vendor Courier Female Climber Male Climber Doctor Painter Boy Girl with a Dog Her Ex-Boyfriend Woman in Labor Dying Man MAIN CREW Richard Dormer Wojciech Mecwaldowski Paulina Chapko Andrzej Chyra Dawid Ogrodnik Agata Buzek Piotr GŁowacki Anna Maria Buczek Jan Nowicki Łukasz Sikora Ifi Ude Mateusz KoŚciukiewicz GraŻyna Błęcka-Kolska Janusz Chabior produced by executive producer executive producers produced by in co-production with co-financed by world sales Ewa Piaskowska jerzy Skolimowski Jeremy Thomas Andrew Lowe Ed Guiney Eileen Tasca Marek Żydowicz Skopia Film (Poland) Element Pictures (Ireland) HBO Europe Orange Polska S.A. TVP S.A. Fundacja Tumult The Polish Film Institute Bord Scannán na héireann / The Irish Film Board Eurimages HanWay Films directed by screenplay by director of photography music editor sound production designer costume designer make-up designer production manager VFX Jerzy Skolimowski Jerzy Skolimowski Mikołaj łebkowski psc Paweł Mykietyn Agnieszka Glińska PSM Radosław Ochnio Joanna Kaczyńska WOJCIECH żogała Kalina Lach Anna Nobel-Nobielska Andrzej Stempowski Dariusz KŁodowski Alvernia Studios Platige Image TECHNICAL DETAILS 2015 Poland / Ireland 81 minutes COLOR, DCP IN Polish & English 11 MINUTES was shot in Poland and in Ireland EUROPE

10 INTERNATIONAL PRESS: RICHARD LORMAND FILM PRESS PLUS T: AT THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL (Sept 2-12) T: WORLDWIDE SALES & DISTRIBUTION: HANWAY FILMS 24 Hanway Street, W1T 1UH, LONDON T: Front cover by Wilhelm Sasnal