Biopic on Anna Jantar enters production, casting for lead role runs to 20 November

Production gets under way

Work has started on JANTAR, a biopic of 1970s pop singer Anna Jantar, according to the producers' announcement. Daniel Jaroszek directs the film and wrote the screenplay with Tatiana Zawrzykraj-Kutz. Robert Kijak, head of Next Film, is the producer. Natalia Kukulska, Anna Jantar's daughter, holds artistic supervision and will handle the music together with her husband Michał Dąbrówka and their son Jan Dąbrówka. In an interview with Plejada, Kukulska said she will supervise the music rather than compose it.

Casting call and fan picks

The nationwide open call is aimed at women aged 18 to 35, and applications close on 20 November. Full details, including a sample scene to perform, are posted at casting.jantarfilm.com. Kukulska says she already has a favourite for the lead but will keep the name to herself for now. Online, the speculation has been lively. Oliwer Kubiak, linked to the programme Dzień Dobry TVN, suggested Natalia Kukulska's daughter, Anna Dąbrówka, describing her as a good fit for the age range who resembles her grandmother and sings well. Maria Dębska, known to viewers from the new adaptation of Lalka and the series Śleboda and Pionek, was also proposed, but the large majority of commenters want Zofia Jastrzębska, known from Infamia, in the role.

Anna Jantar and the 1980 crash

Jantar was one of the most popular singers of the 1970s, with hits including "Tyle słońca w całym mieście" and "Nic nie może wiecznie trwać". She was married to composer Jarosław Kukulski. Jantar died on 14 March 1980 when an Ił-62 crashed while approaching Warsaw's Okęcie airport. RMF reports that she had been returning from concerts in the United States and that the crash killed 87 people.

Director Daniel Jaroszek says the film will look beyond the stage persona.

“What interests me is what was outside the frame.”

He wants to show who she was when the stage lights went out, along with what she dreamed of, feared and had to choose.

Truth, family and the wider wave of biopics

Kukulska says her role demands care because the story is partly her own family's history. She adds that she is guarding the story's accuracy against invented anecdotes.

“I am the guardian of the truth, because I assume that if someone wants to make a film about my mother, it is because her story is interesting.”

She also acknowledges that simplifications cannot be avoided and that not every relative of Jantar will appear on screen. The makers say the marriage to Kukulski will occupy a special place in the film. Rzeczpospolita notes the wave of music biopics in Polish cinema: Nasza rewolucja, Piotr Domalewski's film about Jacek and Gajka Kuroń, opens on 11 November, and Karolina Bielawska's Violetta, with Sandra Drzymalska as Violetta Villas, follows at the end of November.