Wojciech Kossak’s Battle of Warsaw

Location shooting has started 40 km from Warsaw on a feature film about the 1920 Polish-Soviet War, where Poland’s newly independent forces won a famous victory over Trotsky’s Red Army.

The production, being filmed with #D technology,  is being directed by Poland’s veteran filmmaker, 78 year-old Jerzy Hoffman, who stresses that the defeat of the Bolsheviks  - the so-called ‘Miracle of the Vistula’ - was the first genuine Polish military victory since the middle of the 17th century. The first scenes, shot the Modlin stronghold (Twierdza Modlin) this week, depict the preparations for repelling the Soviet invaders.

The cast includes some of Poland’s most popular actors, such as Borys Szyc (as Jan, cavalryman and poet), Natasza Urbańska (cabaret singer and dancer), Daniel Olbrychski (who plays Gen. Józef Pilsudski, who lead the Polish forces), Wiktor Zborowski (Charles de Gaulle) and Wojciech Pszoniak (General Maxime Weygand).

Around 3, 500 extras are to take part in the battle scenes. Sławomir Idziak, known for several Hollywood productions, is Director of Photography.

In the 1920 Battle of Warsaw, Pilsudski snatched victory when defeat seemed imminent, driving the Bolsheviks back into Russia. Historians agree that the Polish victory had far reaching consequences for the future of Europe, as it prevented the Bolshevik revolution from spreading westwards. The Battle of Warsaw was described by an English lord, Edgar V. d’Abernon, as “the eighteenth decisive battle in the history of the world”.

Director Jerzy Hoffman has already three historical epics to his name, all of them adaptations of

Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novels: Colonel Wołodyjowski (1968), The Deluge (1974, nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film Category) and With Fire and Sword (1999).  (mk/pg)