The historical thriller co-produced by Poland, Ukraine (KINOROB), and Great Britain took third place in the French box office charts in its first weekend!
The film directed by Agnieszka Holland is telling the story of a journalist Gareth Jones, who witnessed the Holodomor genocide in Ukraine in 1933. Mr. Jones premiered in France on the 24th of June and took third place by popularity among all the films in the theaters grossing $525,565. It’s also notable that the film took first place among the films premiering that weekend.
In France, the film was launched under the title L'Ombre de Staline, “The Shadow of Stalin”. The premiere was scheduled in March, but it had to be delayed to a later date due to the pandemic. The international distribution of the film is handled by Condor Distribution.
As a reminder: the Ukrainian premiere happened last year on November 28, distributed by FILM.UA Distribution and MMD UA.
FYI
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).
Synopsys. In 1933, Welsh reporter Gareth Jones is looking for his next big story. The job assignment brings him to Moscow, where he meets American journalist Ada Brooks who reveals to him the truth about the “Soviet utopia” and Jones starts to put all pieces together.
Hiding from the Soviet intelligence agencies and facing deadly threats, bit by bit he uncovers the truth about the tragedy of the Ukrainian people: the Holodomor, censorship, conspiracies and mass repressions. Later the Gareth’s work finds a home as the basis of scathing allegory Animal Farm by the famous writer George Orwell.
Director: Agnieszka Holland
Scriptwriter: Andrea Chalupa
Producers: 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
MMD UA and FILM.UA Distribution are distributors in Ukraine.
