Polish director Paweł Maślona (“Panic Attack”) is prepping a lavish period drama about the American Revolutionary War hero Tadeusz Kościuszko.
Produced by Leszek Bodzak and Aneta Hickinbotham for Aurum Film, the production house behind Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated “Corpus Christi,” the historical epic — with the working title “Scarborn,” from a script by Michał A. Zielinski — received development funding from the Polish Film Institute. Aurum is now searching for international co-production partners, with an eye toward filming in 2022.
The film tells the story of the war veteran Kościuszko, a trusted ally of Gen. George Washington’s and a colonel in the Continental Army, who returns to his native Poland with his valet and confidante, Jean Lapierre, a Black man who was known as Domingo. Together the duo fight to liberate Polish serfs from an oppressive feudal system, sparking a national uprising against the Russian Empire in 1794, a doomed effort that would bring an end to Polish sovereignty for the next 123 years.
Maślona’s first feature, “Panic Attack,” played in competition in Karlovy Vary. Variety described the “energetic, well-crafted” ensemble comedy as an “attractive calling-card” for the debut helmer that “should play well…[with] audiences eager for depictions of contemporary life in Eastern Europe that are less dour than those usually afforded by the festival circuit.”
Aurum is currently prepping Komasa’s next project, “Shine of the Sun,” and will be launching sales during the European Film Market on “Leave No Traces,” the latest feature from acclaimed director Jan P. Matuszyński (“The Last Family”), which is being sold by New Europe Film Sales.
Pictured: Paweł Maślona (l.) and Leszek Bodzak