A first look at The Crown star Lesley Manville's new film Winter of the Crow has been revealed.
Based on the story 'Professor Andrews Goes to Warsaw' by Olga Tokarczuk, the film is set during the Cold War in "the surreal and cinematic world" of 1980s Poland and follows the story of British psychiatry professor Dr Joan Andrews (Manville), who finds herself in Warsaw during martial law.
Trapped in the city, Joan soon becomes a target of the secret police after capturing a "brutal murder" on camera during the crackdown.
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Alongside Manville — who's next set to appear in the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black — the film also stars Tom Burke, Zofia Wichłacz and Andrzej Konopka.
Related: Dominic West "spent two days in bed" after reading The Crown reviews
"In mortal danger and trapped as Poland is closed down, Joan becomes a hunted fugitive running for her life. Using her intellect and newly formed connection with a young student, Joan navigates the labyrinthine streets of Warsaw desperately battling against the clock to make the last plane out," the film's synopsis reads.
"British Ambassador (Burke) could be her ally, but can he trust those who are working with him? Compelled by a conscience she did not know she had, Joan finds the courage and determination to try and outsmart a totalitarian regime and pursue a path to justice for her new Polish friends.
"But in the face of such oppression, will she make the last flight home and manage to get her incriminating photos out into the world?"
Winter of the Crow is directed by Cracow Monsters' Kasia Adamik, with filming currently underway in Warsaw.
Speaking about the film, Adamik said she had felt an "intensely personal" connection to the story.
"As a child, I lived in a satellite city of Warsaw. After emigrating to the West, I would dream of the concrete labyrinth of grey high rises, a weird no man's land of never-ending, muddy construction sites, reminiscent of Terry Gilliam's Brazil," she said in a statement (via Deadline).
"Now Professor Andrews has found herself in my labyrinth, a dreamlike universe where rules are unknown and absurdity reigns, on the border of the real and phantasmagorical world."
Winter of the Crow is yet to receive a release date.
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Brenna Cooper is a freelance journalist, who currently specialises in entertainment reporting. She joined Digital Spy in 2022, writing TV and movies stories for the site. After graduating with an NCTJ accredited Journalism Masters from the University of Sheffield in 2020 she has since embarked on a freelance career.
Brenna previously produced lifestyle content for Checklists.co.uk and has a specific interest in music, reviewing live acts and interviewing bands such as Confidence Man and Amyl and the Sniffers.
