Karolina Kołodziejczyk: I've been to a movie late on Red Mac. The audience was dominated by old ladies and couples. I wonder if this film, your ass, has much to offer to the younger audience, too?
Matthew Banasiuk: Older?
Ladies who could remember Monte Cassino at least from their parents' stories. They were very moved by the film, which was large for me to watch from the side.
I'm touched by this movie, too. too being an actor, I'm besides a spectator and I watched this movie with a large hope that it would work. And I think it worked! We have created a communicative that is multigenerational – for older people, the fight for Monte Cassino is frequently part of the household history, surviving from which they are proud. And for young people, it's an adventure movie, telling about their peers, having akin thoughts and attitude to the surrounding planet as they do. Young people who want to play, meet their peers, travel, just live. Many of them do not want to participate in any war.
They most likely don't realize either.
The manager managed to make a script in which the main character is different from most of the characters of Polish war films. He's a young man who fell in love and wants to slip through the war without engaging in a fight. In turn I play Lieutenant Edmund Wilkosz, a historical figure – a large hero, a very brave man, a large commander. For him, the slogan “God, Honor, Homeland” was a force, rock, mobilized him to fight and encouraged him. The clashing of these 2 different attitudes is simply a very interesting treatment in the movie “Red poppies” due to the fact that it besides reflects what is being discussed present in the face of the war in Ukraine.
I remember reading about planet War II – I thought I would be the first to fight. Today, in retrospect, I have a somewhat different approach to this, and I don't know what decision I would make. For now, we can only be sure.
It seems to me that this romanticist subject is aimed at young people. I wonder how curious they are in our past and national liberation, and how much the subject needs to be modernized to interest them.
It is good to attract young people to cinema, but not bore them and not discourage them from history. How do we accomplish this? To make a movie that will be devoid of laurels and martyrdom, showing a man who has akin dilemmas as they do. The film, in which the action is dense, fast assembly, and modern implementation. I think that is what “Red poppies” are.
Why are we so fond of historical cinema? The question of budgets and subsidies, do we just have any desire to go back to the past?
Poland has specified a rich past that there truly is something to make films about. In “Red poppy” we besides have a mention to modern times, due to the fact that we are talking about the armed conflict, and there is simply a war next to us. The movie makes us see what this war looks like from the inside...
So this is simply a warning?
A little. Many families depend on the decision of 1 leader. It's death, suffering, disability. We must remember this and show people that war is not a chess game – it has consequences, frequently multigenerational. possibly it's a small naive of me, but I believe that's why we make movies so there's no war.
On the another hand, we commemorate people.
Of course. We want to show what wonderful heroes we had in Poland, who were the only ones to defeat the Nazis on Monte Cassino.
Did something surprise you in preparation for the role? Something in the context of Monte Cassino or Edmund Wilkosz?
As for my hero, he's the patron of the Boy Scouts. Besides, I don't think so. I knew the communicative beautiful well. 1 of my ancestors fought in Anders' army.
So there's besides a individual thread.
Yes, and it is 1 of the most crucial battles we have won, and we can be very arrogant of it. As I stood on the set and watched these bunkers, trenches, barbed wires and heard all the time series of device guns, I felt on my own that attacking these hills required large courage.
Was that a physically demanding function for you? Croatian outdoors, sun, heat...
Of course, it wasn't easy, but weather conditions are a secondary substance for me. But I don't want to betray what was most stressful and exhausting to me, due to the fact that it's a scene that comes at the end of the movie and I don't want to spoil it.
How do you remember outdoors in Croatia? Filming with specified momentum abroad does not happen often.
When viewers get a finished work of art, they enter past and frequently do not wonder how it was prepared. And we were shooting in Croatia, in quarries, in very hard conditions. Everything had to be built and brought – from tanks to guns to pens or tiny surgical tools. The movie was prepared with large care and attention to details. In the chaos of battle, 1 frequently fails to pay attention to these things, but being on the set has time and chance to look at it all. I was very impressed due to the fact that you can't buy these costumes at the first better store, you gotta sew them up. You will not buy specified props in the buying mall, everything was found in the cellars, purchased at the antiques fair, and then renovated. You gotta take care of that, due to the fact that these things destroy, rust. Fans of past are searching for specified gems from old times. They were very useful for the implementation of “Red poppies”. Without this and the support of reconstruction groups, it would not be possible to implement specified a large historical project.
So historical realism was actually preserved and you felt that this outdoor 1 was created as it should have been.
Absolutely. But all the gunshot wounds, the scars... The tedious work of the makeup and costume department made everything look very credible. It's due to the meticulous and precise work of a fewer pawns on the set. I remember 1 day erstwhile the preparations lasted for respective hours and abruptly the rain began. The plan stopped, we were all waiting for the shot and we didn't know if the photos would be cancelled. It would be a immense problem, due to the fact that the next day any actors had to return to Poland. Fortunately, after 2 hours the rain stopped and we managed to shoot all the scenes.
For a moment, I would like to postpone the subject "Red Macs" and return to the movie 11 years ago, which is "Flying Towers". presently I miss specified cinema in Poland – specified a soulful, steamy, close to the viewer. You besides miss specified roles as in “Big Love” or “Everything I Love” specified Slow cinema?
That's what movies are made. For example, Luke Ronduda made the movie “All Our Fears”. past deals with topics akin to those in “Flying Towers”. Of course, I miss these roles, due to the fact that for years I've been playing any another productions, more commercial, but I'm working on making it change.
Can you tell me what's going to happen in your movie and theater?
I can do theatre due to the fact that I can't tell you anything at the moment. In the theatre I have a very first thing, something that fascinated me from the beginning, due to the fact that it's a contemporary text written by a thirteen-voiced man, containing various neologisms and expressions typical of the common language. The manager is Paweł Świątek, who is simply a very interesting artist, and on phase I meet my partner, Magda Boczarska.
How's it feel?
We work together large – we already have the premiere and the first performances with the audience. Welcome to Imka Theatre for our “Fear”! The show tells of a couple who live in an old flat close the Savior Square in Warsaw. The problem is, there's all the furniture left in the apartment, including the closet. And in this closet, a drop in the form of Adam Mickiewicz, who is simply a vampire. He's taken out of romance alive, detached from reality, lives with memories. We're watching him in a collision with this modern couple who want to kind out their lives, want to accomplish something, look for their artistic identity. Still, it collides with this romanticism and the vampire that sucks the energy out of them. specified a life in a triangle – to put it mildly, is at least embarrassing.
It's hard. A vampire, too.
Exactly! We came up with a very different black comedy.
Thirteen is something that is frequently not done, and surely not done in contemporary performances.
That is why I have enjoyed taking part in this project. Plus, the sense of humor recorded in the text gets to me very much. For now, we will not ride anywhere with “The Quail” so I invitation you to visit us, to Imka Theatre in Warsaw for our latest play.
Come and thank you for stopping by today!
Photo by Ewa Partek
