Head of state Volodymyr Zelensky has conferred director of Mr. Jones movie Agnieszka Holland with the Order of Princess Olha 3rd Class "for making a significant contribution to the honoring memory of the victims of the genocide of the Ukrainian nation - the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, devoted activity oriented to illuminate the truth about the Holodomor."
Agnieszka Holland is a Polish film director, a president of the European Film Academy, a Golden Globe Awards winner, a two-time Oscar nominee for Europa Europa (1991) and In Darkness (2011) movies.
On November 28, Mr. Jones historical thriller by Agnieszka Holland is released on the big screens. The movie tells the story of the British journalist Gareth Jones, who went to the Soviet Union in 1933 and saw with his own eyes the crimes of the Stalinist regime and the Holodomor in Ukraine.
In November 2008, former President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko had posthumously awarded journalist Gareth Jones with the Order of Merit 3rd Class for making a personal significant contribution to presenting the truth about the genocide of the Ukrainian nation during the Holodomor of 1932-1933 to the world community. The award was conferred to journalist's niece Margaret Colley, a commemoration ceremony was held in the Central Hall of Westminster Palace.
A video for the song The Price of Truth by Jamala
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.
