‘The Zone of Interest’ Producer Ewa Puszczyńska and Director Jan Holoubek Say ‘Wild Wild East’ No Longer Feels Like a Period Drama: ‘It Can Happen Again. It Already Is’

Jan Holoubek’s TIFF premiere “Wild Wild East” is set in 1943, but it no longer feels safely stored away in the past. 

“When I first read the script 12 years ago, it felt like a period drama. It was about something that happened a long time ago and wouldn’t happen again. Today, I think it’s about something that can happen again. It already is,” the Polish director tells Variety. 

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The film follows a German official who arrives in a remote Polish village to investigate the disappearance of a man who was supposed to protect the riches of a Jewish family. He soon realizes that everyone around him is hiding something. 

“We know what’s happening in Europe, with the rise of nationalistic right-wing movements. Or in Ukraine, where Russians are repeating the horrors of the Second War World by murdering civilians, kidnapping children and torturing people,” says Holoubek.

“I want to show this film not just to my generation, raised by grandparents who survived the war, but to many young people who perhaps don’t know what nationalism can lead to.” 

In order to do that — and to “shake up the audience” — he looked to Westerns and thrillers instead of more traditional war dramas. So far, so very “Inglourious Basterds.”

“I know that many people will see Tarantino in this film, but that’s not what drove me to make it. I just think it’s time to talk about the Second World War in a different way,” he says. 

Producer Ewa Puszczyńska, also behind “The Zone of Interest,” “Ida” and “Cold War,” adds: “We’ve always talked about making it into a Western, in a way. What I like about genre films is that you can tackle serious issues and then introduce a twist. All of a sudden, you enter a new universe.”

Puszczyńska produced “Wild Wild East” alongside Bogna Szewczyk-Skupień, Klaudia Śmieja- Rostworowska and Holoubek for Madants, Holograph and Extreme Emotions.

“I liked it, but I had my doubts. Will viewers get it? Will they follow us from that what looks like more conventional cinema into something completely different? Jan was so convincing that I just told myself: ‘It will work.’ And it did,” she says, adding: “Recently, I took a taxi in Warsaw and ended up talking to the driver. The conversation turned political, and we were on opposite sides. I got out of that taxi sweaty and terrified. If this film opens the eyes of younger people in any way, it will be our biggest success.”

Sold by Global Constellation, it stars Itay Tiran, Robert Więckiewicz, Joanna Kulig and Magdalena Różczka.

Poland’s relationship with World War II has been difficult. Some right-leaning organizations have accused the Oscar-winning “Ida” of distorting history, while others have fought against the phrase “Polish death camps.” 

But in Holoubek’s film, everyone is guilty of silence.

“I want us to look in the mirror and see more than just our good traits. I’m showing Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish and German characters, and they all have good and bad sides,” he states. 

“During the war, everyone was fighting to survive. For us, people living in peace, it’s hard to understand what that would entail. But you’re absolutely right — this film might burst our national bubble a little.”

However, Puszczyńska argues that Holoubek does it subtly.

“It’s never just a slap in the face,” she notes.

“I like that because you can’t claim that one country has only good or bad people. They all fight to survive, and the best ones fight to help others survive.”

They also fight to ensure that people remember. Just like the author of the illustrations shown throughout the film. 

“When faced with such a terrible time, sometimes art is the only thing that makes sense. It freezes time,” says Holoubek. 

“Art helps us remember, and maybe this film will as well? In our story, the streets are empty, and people are hiding in their homes. But in these drawings, the streets are still full of life and all these people are living together: Jews, Poles and Christians. Art can show us the world that was lost.” 

The script, written by Aleksandra Takuska, has multiple surprises in store. Including its heart-wrenching finale.

“For me, the ending was the essence of the film,” says Holoubek.

“I was convinced it was an adventure film, a Western, a thriller — one of the genres I’m familiar with. This knowledge gave me comfort. I thought it was going to be fun; I thought I knew what was going to happen to the main character. And then I fell off my chair.”

He underlines: “Without the last sequence, this film doesn’t make any sense.”