The first trailer has been unveiled for Walls (Mur), actor-turned-filmmaker Kasia Smutniaks directorial debut that will world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to a mass exodus of refugees seeking asylum across Europe. Among the European countries offering aid and refuge, Poland was particularly generous but the country had also simultaneously commenced the construction of Europes most expensive wall along its entire border with Belarus to deter further refugees from entering.
A strip of land known as the red zone running parallel to the Belarusian border prevents anyone from approaching and seeing the construction of the wall. Smutniak undertakes an uncertain and risky journey into the red zone, where access is not allowed to the media, with the help of local activists and minimal technical equipment. The directors journey begins and ends with two walls.
The first wall rejects migrants arriving from distant lands through Puszcza Biaowiea, the oldest forest in Europe, an impenetrable border in a sea of trees. The second, the one in front of the window of her grandparents house in d, where the director used to play as a child, is the wall of the Jewish cemetery in the Litzmannstadt ghetto.
Smutniak has acted in more than 40 films and TV shows. In 2008 she won the Italian Golden Globe for best breakthrough actress and nominated as for the film In Your Hands (2007) by Peter Del Monte. Her credits also include Quiet Chaos (2008) by Antonello Grimaldi, The Passion (2010) by Carlo Mazzacurati, From Paris with Love (2010) by Pierre Morel and Wondrous Boccaccio (2015) by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Her TV work includes Sky series Devils (2020) and the lead role of Livia Drusilla in the Sky series Domina.
In 2014 Smutniak won Italys Silver Ribbon for best leading actress for Ferzan zpeteks Fasten Your Seatbelts and in 2018 won it again in the supporting actress category for Loro 1 and Loro 2 by Paolo Sorrentino.
Walls is written by Smutniak and Marella Bombini and produced by Domenico Procacci, Laura Paolucci and Smutniak. The film is a Fandango production in association with Luce Cinecitt, who will also distribute, with the contribution of Italys Ministero Della Cultura Direzione Generale Cinema e Audiovisivo. Fandango Sales is handling international sales.
Watch the trailer here: