Polish star Marcin Dorocinski will lead the cast for Minghun, the latest feature from Leave No Traces director Jan P. Matuszynski.
Dorocinski’s credits include The Queen’s Gambit, Vikings: Valhalla and the forthcoming Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One.
The cast also includes Daxing Zhang, young actors Natalia Bui and Antek Sztaba, as well as Ewelina Starejki, Wiktoria Gorodeckaja, Fenfen Huang, Kwong Loke and Yuk Han. The script was written by Grzegorz Loszewski.
The project, which is currently shooting, is targeting an autumn festival premiere (with Venice a potential destination) and will be released in Poland by Kino Swiat.
It is the story of Jurek (Dorocinski) whose life is turned upside down after his beloved daughter Marysia (Bui) dies in a car accident. He is plunged into despair when Marysia’s grandfather Ben (Zhang), convinces him to perform an old Confucian ritual called Minghun (marriage following death). Jurek and Ben embark upon a journey to find Marysia her perfect dead husband.
Minghun has been made through Wonder Films, the outfit set up three years ago by producers Krzysztof Rak, Klaudiusz Frydrych and Inga Kruk.
Wonder Films pitched Minghun to international sales agents in Berlin in February. Many companies are currently in negotiations to acquire world rights to this film. Kino Swiat acquired the Polish rights at script stage. Canal+ is also in talks to board the project.
The $2.5m drama was co-financed by Polish Film Institute, Gdansk Film Fund and with support from the Municipal Office in Gdansk.
Director Matuszynski’s previous film Leave No Traces, sold by New Europe, had its world premiere in competition at Venice in 2021. His debut dramatic feature The Last Family premiered in Locarno in 2016.
“Polish cinema is in a very interesting moment,” producer Rak commented, pointing to recent Polish Oscar nominees like Corpus Christi (on which he was one of the producers), Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War.
Casting sessions for Minghun were held in the US, UK, Poland and France. The film was shot in English, Polish, and Chinese. Rak confirmed that the producers will be looking to find buyers for the film, which explores the clash between European and Asian culture, in markets like South Korea, Japan and across Asia as well as in Europe.
-
Cannes 2023: What’s in the running?
