A trailer has been released to Mr. Jones, a film about reporter Gareth Jones who went to the Soviet Union in 1933 to uncover the truth about the crimes of Stalin’s regime and the Famine in Ukraine.
The film director was an Academy Award nominee Agnieszka Holland. The film will be widely released on November 28.
Before, the audience was presented a film fragment exclusively published by Variety.
Mr. Jones has been jointly produced by Ukraine (Kinorob with the support of Ukrainian State Film Agency), Poland (Film Produkcja with the support of Polish Film Institute) and the UK (Jones Boy Film).
“Mr. Jones is a powerful and extremely important film for Ukrainian and global audience. In the age of informational fakes and post-truth we have to, first of all, remain authentic and aspire for the truth just like the protagonist, Gareth Jones, did. That is why it is essential that in this story we can see lots of parallels with the contemporary times,” said Egor Olesov, producer.
The filming took place in Ukraine, Poland, and Scotland. In Ukraine, the filming took place on the biggest square in Europe located in Kharkiv; to do this, the square was closed off for some time for city residents and guests.
The project consultant was Timothy Snyder, an American historian, and writer, professor at Yale University; in his monograph Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin he argued a statement that Soviet and Nazi regimes killed about 14 million people on the territories of Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, the Baltics, and western regions of Russia.
Last week, at Book Forum during the public interview “Circulation of cinema and literature in the Ukrainian context. FILM.UA Group experience” the publication of book Gareth Jones. The Price of Truth was announced, with the journalist’s biography and articles. The basis for this work is a book Gareth Jones, Journalist which was a bachelor’s thesis by the Institute of Journalism students Olena Tyschuk and Valentyna Pasichna published last year in 20 copies under the supervision of deans at publishing and editing chair Yaroslava Prykhoda and Maryna Zhenchenko. The renewed publication in Ukrainian and English languages is due to see the light together with the theatrical release of Mr. Jones.
The premiere of historical thriller in Ukraine is scheduled for November 28, 2019.
FYI.
1933. Gareth Jones (James Norton) is an ambitious young Welsh journalist who gained fame after his report on being the first foreign journalist to fly with Hitler. Whilst working as an advisor to Lloyd George, he is now looking for his next big story. The Soviet “utopia” is all over the news, and Jones is intrigued as to how Stalin is financing the rapid modernization of the Soviet Union.
On leaving his government role, Jones decides to travel to Moscow in an attempt to get an interview with Stalin himself. There he meets Ada Brooks (Vanessa Kirby), a British journalist working in Moscow, who reveals that the truth behind the regime is being violently repressed. Hearing murmurs of government-induced famine, a secret carefully guarded by the Soviet censors, Jones manages to elude the authorities and travels clandestinely to Ukraine, where he witnesses the atrocities of man-made starvation – millions left to starve – as all grain is sold abroad to finance the industrializing Soviet empire.
Deported back to London, Jones publishes an article revealing the horrors he witnessed. But the starvation is denied by Western journalists reporting from Moscow, all under pressure from the Kremlin, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Walter Duranty (Peter Sarsgaard). As death threats mount, Jones has to fight for the truth. Meeting a young author by the name of George Orwell, Jones shares his findings… helping inspire the great allegorical novel Animal Farm.
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Scriptwriter: Andrea Chalupa
Producer: Klaudia Smieja, Stanislaw Dziedzic, Egor Olesov, Angus Lamont, Andrea Chalupa
Director of photography: Tomasz Naumiuk
Cast: James Norton, Vanessa Kirby, Peter Sarsgaard, Joseph Mawle, Kenneth Cranham, Yakiv Tkachenko, Oleg Drach, Volodymyr Fedoruk, Anna Shaydyuk, Anastasia Chala, Alina Kovalska, and others
Coming to theaters in Ukraine and worldwide this fall, 2019.
MMD UA and FILM.UA Distribution are distributors in Ukraine.
‘Mr. Jones’ is a co-production of Poland (Film Produkcja with the support of Polish Film Institute), Ukraine (Kinorob with the support of Ukrainian State Film Agency) and the United Kingdom (Jones Boy Film). Filming took place in Ukraine, Poland, and Scotland.
The film’s marketing campaign in Ukraine based on a large-scale social and educational project of FILM.UA Group with the support of ‘Ukraina’ TV channel, general media partner. The campaign’s purpose is to popularize Gareth Jones’ personality in Ukraine and the world and to preserve the memory of 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine.
