Avalon
![Watch film Avalon — Avalon (2001) Original Trailer [HD]](https://www.acmodasi.in/amdb/images/posters/d/4/xbMiMIZVSQb6.webp)
Short description
Avalon is set in a near-future Poland where disillusioned young people escape a bleak reality into an illegal virtual-reality war game of the same name. Players grow dependent on the simulated combat, and those who push too far risk being left in a vegetative state; they are known as "non-returned." Ash is a skilled and solitary player who learns that Murphy, a talented gamer close to her, has become one of them after attempting to reach a restricted area of the game. Determined to follow his path, she sets out to enter that higher level, a place from which no one has come back.
The film was directed by Mamoru Oshii, his seventh feature in chronological order, arriving between Ghost in the Shell and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, and written by Kazunori Ito. It was a Polish-Japanese co-production shot in Poland with a largely Polish cast, led by Małgorzata Foremniak as Ash, alongside Władysław Kowalski, Jerzy Gudejko, Dariusz Biskupski, Bartłomiej Świderski and Katarzyna Bargiełowska.
Made for about 8 million USD, Avalon took roughly 9 million USD worldwide. On TMDB it holds a 6.5 out of 10 from 360 votes, while a small pool of critics' reviews averages 6.9 out of 10, a slightly warmer response than that of the wider audience.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was not accidentally shot in Poland. In order to achieve a sense of novelty, the Japanese director was looking for a country, culture, and traditions that were as exotic as possible (in his opinion).
- Another title is “Gate to Avalon” (Gate to Avalon, 2001).
- Osi personally conducted the auditions in April 1999 and chose Małgorzata Foremniak for the lead role himself.
- Initially, the main character was supposed to be a man. Only after starting work did Osi decide to make Ash a woman.
- When Ash enters Avalon and finds herself in the opera, the name of the film's artist, Barbara Nowak, can be found on the poster.
- The country chosen by Osii was not necessarily intended to be Poland. For example, he considered England and Ireland as options. However, his desire to present the world he had invented as a world of darkness, rather than light, led him to Eastern Europe.
- Filming of the film lasted more than two months.
- The director did not want the costumes of the warriors of Avalon to be designed by Japanese artists, who thought in Eastern traditions. That is why Magdalena Tesławska was invited, who had worked with Andrzej Wajda, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, Andrzej Żuławski, and Jerzy Hoffman. Although Osi had planned to dress the characters in old military uniforms of communist Russia, he accepted Magdalena Tesławska’s proposals.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
