Exclusive: Poland's Madants to produce English-language thriller Silent Twins

Madants is set to produce an English-language project called Silent Twins with a UK/US production partner, among several other forthcoming projects on its slate.

Poland’s Agnieszka Smoczyńska is onboard to direct Silent Twins, her first stand-alone English-language feature. She previously directed a segment of the anthology horror film, The Field Guide to Evil.

Speaking to KFTV at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, Klaudia Smieja, co-owner of Madants, said: "Silent Twins will tell the story of twins, June and Jennifer, who speak only to each other in a language of their own creation. After 14 years in the Broadmoor Psychiatric Institution, freedom visits them in a mysterious way."

Madants is in talks with UK/US management and production company 42 to collaborate on the project. Andrea Seigel wrote the screenplay and is serving as executive producer on the project.

Silent Twins has already secured financial support from the Polish Film Institute and is due to shoot next year. 

It is one of the first films to access Poland's new 30% cash rebate incentive for international productions that shoot in the country. “We have had interest and applications for the incentive from international productions, especially Germany, have already applied through a local production partner,” confirmed Anna Ewa Dziedzic at the Polish Film Institute to KFTV. Feature films must spend PLN2.5m (approximately €600,000) and pass a culture test to qualify.

Madants has a number of other international co-production projects in the pipeline, including Aleksandra Terpińska’s rap musical, Other People, a co-production with France’s Alcatraz Films (Blue is the Warmest Colour) with the co-operation of Warner Bros, confirmed Smieja.

Based on the best-selling book by Dorota Maslowska, Other People tells the story of a wannabe rapper’s relationship with a nouveau-riche pill-popping trophy wife Iwona. Shooting is due to start in Winter 2020.

Another new project is Pamfir, a co-production with Ukraine’s Boson Films, which will be directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk and is due to shoot in the fall next year. The film tells the biblical story about Abraham set in modern day Ukraine.

Madants is also producing Agnieszka Holland’s new drama Charlatan, a co-production with Marlene Film Productions of the Czech Republic and Ireland’s Film and Music Entertainment, about a miracle healer; Ragnar Bragason’s drama The Garden, a co-production with Iceland’s Mystery Island EHF; and Vladimar Johannsson’s Icelandic supernatural drama Lamb, starring Noomi Rapace, about a couple who adopt a newborn half human, half sheep.

The company is also set to co-produce Blanquita with Chile’s Quijote Films about a woman living on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, who gets caught up in a sex scandal involving politicians and businessmen.

Chilean Fernando Guzzoni is set to direct the project, which is due to shoot in Spring next year in Santiago. The producers have already secured funding from the Hubert Bals fund, and will look to get Polish Film Institute funding too. They are also looking for another production partner, most likely from France or Germany.