08-09-2008

Gdynia Polish Film Festival Competition Spotlight: Ladies

By Katarzyna Grynienko
    Tomasz Konecki's Ladies emerges as a Polish response to modern women-oriented productions hits Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives.

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    Tomasz Koncecki decided to direct Ladies after the success of his movie on being a male in today's world, Testosterone. The gender subject area paid off once again when in March 2008 Ladies broke the audience attendance record for a Polish comedy, with over 2.2 million viewers -- stealing the title from Juliusz Machulski's hit Killer.

    Ladies features four lifelong friends in their thirties and fourties who organize an annual mid-summer New Year's Eve party and making resolutions which all revolve around their connections with men, the biggest problem in their lives.

    "The total budget is PLN5.35 million (1.55 million Euros) and the movie was produced single-handedly by Van Worden," Iwona Ogonowska-Konecka, the second director and the administrative producer of Ladies told FNE. Van Worden (www.vanworden.pl) is the young Polish company that started with Testosterone and is now investing in Konecki's talent to make blockbuster comedies. They continue with his upcoming film The Perfect Guy for My New Girlfriend.
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    Ladies was shot on location in the fall of 2007 and premiered in Poland in February 2008. Iwona Ogonowska-Konecka told FNE that after its huge success in Poland, the producers are planning to distribute it abroad starting with England and Ireland. "Van Worden will handle the foreign distribution as well," she added.