We have been accompanying the main creator of the series, Waldemar Krzystek, from the beginning of the script that his wife, Małgorzata Kopernik wrote 20 years earlier! Over 300(!) effect shots in ten episodes of the series. Floods, fires, and deadly frosts, the spring landscapes had to be covered with a thick layer of snow on the screen, and a swimming pool – quite a large one, it must be admitted – turned into flooded Wrocław. The series broadcast on TVP attracted almost 3 million viewers watching simultaneously!

The grading was very important because the colors help the viewer to know when the action is taking place. The borderlands of the 1920s are the most colorful, bright, and golden. The major inspiration for me was painting: Jacek Malczewski, Ilya Repin, but also Dutch artists whom I love. The times of World War II are characterized by high desaturation, they are almost monochromatic, while the 1990s were supposed to be the most ordinary. This distinction worked very well. As the DOP who spent many days on the water shooting Dutch “Storm,” I was also very satisfied with the flood simulation.

Piotr Kukla, DOP