Director Karolina Bielawska is moving into production with her debut feature, a biopic inspired by the life of iconic Polish singer Violetta Villas. The working title is “Violetta and the Woodpecker,” Film New Europe reports.
Bielawska has spent five years developing the project. She is best known for 2015’s “Call Me Marianna,” which won best documentary at Krakow Film Festival.
Bielawska has wanted to make a film about Villas – who was born in 1938 and died in 2011 – since 2016, but had to wait for the approval of the family, who collaborated on the script. The film was initially planned to be produced by Munk Studio, but as the project grew and reconstructions of Poland in the 50s and 60s raised the budget to 3.2 million Euros (15 million PLN), Munk Studio stepped away from the project.
The film is being produced by Lava Films with the support of the Polish Film Institute. The casting and development process has been launched anew, with a trial shoot taking place this month in Warsaw and filming due to start in the autumn.
The script, which was co-written by Bielawska and Małgorzata Gospodarek, will showcase the life of Villas from the perspective of her son. The artist’s story “is too interesting and universal to make it shallow, to tell only about her clothes and romances,” commented Bielawska.
It has not yet been announced who will play the lead and the director only said that it will be a musical actress. The rest of the cast has not been announced either.
The film will premiere next year.
This article is published in partnership with online news service Film New Europe, which covers film and TV industry news from across Central and Eastern Europe.
