Government believes an ‘internationally recognised’ film about Polish history will help nation win more respect on world stage

Poland’s conservative government want Hollywood to produce a Polish equivalent of Braveheart or Saving Private Ryan to improve the country’s image abroad.

It believes that a movie would make Poland feel proud of its achievements and win it more respect on the world stage at a time when many citizens are falling behind financially. Critics say the government wants to exploit growing feelings of nationalism in order to boost its popularity and divert public attention from economic problems.

“There is no internationally recognised film about Polish history. I regret this,” the culture minister, Piotr Gliński, said in an interview. “Why is this important? Every community needs something that brings it together … in order to build its strength and to win, or rather, not to lose, on the world stage. Economically and politically.”

Gliński’s Eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) won an election in October promising greater economic equality and a nationalist response to growing influence from Brussels. PiS has since announced plans for a major public relations campaign at home and abroad as well as a drive to make schools, theatres and public television promote more patriotic themes.

Gliński, who is the most senior member of the cabinet after the prime minister, suggested the film could tell the story of the 1683 battle of Vienna or the 1944 battle of Monte Cassino, the latter one of the toughest of the second world war.

“Almost every wartime story of a Polish soldier is a readymade script,” Gliński said. The film would “tell the world who has protected our civilisation”.



In Vienna, Poles helped defeat the Turks in what marked the end of the Ottoman empire’s expansion into Europe.

Asked whether there were any movies that could serve as a model for the government’s plans, he said: “Yes, there are many, particularly American ones: Saving Private Ryan or Pearl Harbor. The well known patriotic production about the heroic history of the Scots – Braveheart – can also be used as an example.”



Gliński said the goal was a “Hollywood-level” film and the government had been in touch with potential producers, although he did not say who they were.