Forgotten Love
Production
Director
Scenario
Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz
Author
Composer
Paweł Lucewicz
Producer
Magdalena Szwedkowicz
Actors
Leszek Lichota
Rafał Wilczur / Antoni Kosiba
Maria Kowalska
Marysia Wilczur
Ignacy Liss
Leszek Czyński
Anna Szymańczyk
Zośka
Izabela Kuna
countess Eleonora Cyńska
Izabela Kuna
Eleonora Czyńska
Mikołaj Grabowski
count Stanislaw Czyński
Mikołaj Grabowski
Stanisław Czyński
Short description
This Polish drama and romance follows a formerly esteemed surgeon who suffers the loss of both his family and his memories. His life changes when he encounters someone from his forgotten past, providing him with an opportunity for redemption and a chance to start over.
The film was directed by Michał Gazda, marking the first entry in a list of his directed works that includes Justice. The screenplay was written by Marcin Baczyński and Mariusz Kuczewski. The movie stars Leszek Lichota, Maria Kowalska, Ignacy Liss, Anna Szymańczyk, and Izabela Kuna. The production was handled by MS Productions and Endemol Shine Polska, involving a crew of 174 people and a cast of 44.
Released in 2023 with a runtime of 140 minutes, the film has received positive responses from viewers. It holds a rating of 7.8/10 on IMDb based on 4,300 votes and an identical rating of 7.8/10 on TMDB from 374 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Ranks 43rd in attendance among foreign films in Soviet cinema distribution.
- Based on the novel of the same name from 1937 by Polish writer Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz.
- Director and screenwriter Jerzy Hoffman invited Daniel Olbrychski for one of the roles, having previously worked with him on the historical drama "Pan Wołodyjowski" (1969) and the adventure melodrama "The Deluge" (1974), but Olbrychski declined. The role then went to Tomasz Stockinger. Years later, Stockinger and Anna Dymna recalled that they enjoyed kissing in scenes and even occasionally asked for additional takes to prolong the experience.
- The Belarusian province was filmed in the city of Bielsk Podlaski in the Podlaskie Voivodeship in Poland. Local residents played in the mass scenes. The city center was slightly altered during preparation for filming. Cardboard facades were used to create the image of an old village and hide modern buildings. As one local resident later recalled, the modern asphalt in front of the town hall was replaced with cobblestones. Many local residents appeared in the crowd scenes and as extras. In particular, an employee of the local market nicknamed "Lemon" appeared in a shot. She ended up in the frame by chance, but Jerzy Hoffman liked her so much that he created a separate scene for her. A pre-premiere screening of the film was also held in this city.
- During breaks in filming, Jerzy Hoffman would send the actors to the surrounding forests to pick mushrooms, after which he would prepare mushroom dishes for the entire film crew.
- Roses feature in one of the scenes. As it turned out, these roses became the most expensive in the history of Polish cinema. The evening before, one of the filmmakers was sent to search for flowers, but he managed to find only a modest bouquet in the entire city. The props department urgently dispatched an employee by taxi to Warsaw (200 km away). There, they purchased several dozen exquisite yellow roses at astronomical prices. Having received the roses, Jerzy Hoffman spent an incredible amount of valuable film, purchased with foreign currency, on filming the scene with the flowers. Eleven takes of the scene were shot.
- Jerzy Hoffman invited Jerzy Bińczycki for the role of the main character, whom he knew from Jerzy Antczak's military melodrama “Nights and Days” (1975). Hoffman saw in Bińczycki a not overly educated rural man – an ideal combination for a healer. Bińczycki himself was dissatisfied with his performance. He even tried to return part of his fee to Hoffman – as payment for the film stock spent on him.
- There were no auditions for the role of Marysia. Jerzy Hoffman saw only Anna Dymna in this role, whom he had already filmed in his previous film – the military drama “To the Last Drop of Blood” (1978). In May 1978, Dymna was involved in a traffic accident on her way to filming in Hungary. As a result of the accident, she suffered injuries to her legs and spine, and also lost some of her memories. Participation in the filming of this film became a deeply personal matter for her.
- The store where Anna Dymna’s character worked still exists today and is named “The Healer” in honor of the film. Over time, it was decided to demolish the old buildings and replace them with more modern ones, but these plans were thwarted by local residents who defended the setting in which “The Healer” was filmed.
- Soviet censorship usually mercilessly cut foreign films, removing entire scenes. Not a single scene was cut from "The Specialist". One line was translated inaccurately, and this was done deliberately. When Marysia regains consciousness after the operation, Vilchur kneels and thanks God. In the Soviet dub, Vilchur says, "It worked! I saved her."
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
