Polish Second World War thriller premieres at TIFF Jan Holoubek’s TIFF premiere “Wild Wild East” is set in 1943, but it no longer feels safely stored away in the past. It was about something that happened a long time ago and wouldn’t happen again. Today, I think it’s about something that can happen again.
It already is,” the Polish director tells Variety. The film follows a German official who arrives in a remote Polish village to investigate the disappearance of a man who was supposed to protect the riches of a Jewish family. He soon realizes that everyone around him is hiding something.
Or in Ukraine, where Russians are repeating the horrors of the Second War World by murdering civilians, kidnapping children and torturing people,” says Holoubek. So far, so very “Inglourious Basterds.” “I know that many people will see Tarantino in this film, but that’s not what drove me to make it. I just think it’s time to talk about the Second World War in a different way,” he says.
Producer Ewa Puszczyńska, also behind “The Zone of Interest,” “Ida” and “Cold War,” adds: “We’ve always talked about making it into a Western, in a way. What I like about genre films is that you can tackle serious issues and then introduce a twist. All of a sudden, you enter a new universe.” Puszczyńska produced “Wild Wild East” alongside Bogna Szewczyk-Skupień, Klaudia Śmieja- Rostworowska and Holoubek for Madants, Holograph and Extreme Emotions.
Will they follow us from that what looks like more conventional cinema into something completely different? Jan was so convincing that I just told myself: ‘It will work.’ And it did,” she says, adding: “Recently, I took a taxi in Warsaw and ended up talking to the driver. The conversation turned political, and we were on opposite sides.
I got out of that taxi sweaty and terrified. If this film opens the eyes of younger people in any way, it will be our biggest success.” Sold by Global Constellation, it stars Itay Tiran, Robert Więckiewicz, Joanna Kulig and Magdalena Różczka. Poland’s relationship with World War II has been difficult.
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