Polish star Marcin Dorociński will lead the cast for Minghun, the latest feature from Leave No Traces director Jan P. Matuszynski.
Dorociński’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 Man. The script was written by Grzegorz Łoszewski.
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 (Dorociński) whose life is turned upside down after his beloved daughter Marysia (Bui) dies in a car accident. Plunged into despair, he is persuaded by Marysia’s grandfather, the feisty Ben (Zhang) to perform an old Confucian ritual called minghun (marriage after death). Jurek and Ben embark on a journey to find Marysia the 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. Several companies are in discussions to take world rights to the film. Kino Swiat picked up 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 is 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.
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