Mr. Jones tells the story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who reported on the Great Famine in Soviet Ukraine, a man-made disaster that killed millions in 1932 and 1933.
Holland told reporters at the film's Ukrainian premiere in Kiev on Wednesday night that the disaster decades ago triggered a national trauma and continued to raise a lot of emotion in that country to this day.
Gareth Jones was murdered in 1935 under mysterious circumstances amid suspicion that his death had been engineered by the Soviet NKVD secret police.
In the film, he is portrayed by English actor James Norton, while Vanessa Kirby plays Ada Brooks, a New York Times reporter who helps the main protagonist uncover the Soviet government’s genocidal policies.
The Polish-Ukrainian-British co-production hit cinemas in Poland last month.
The movie won the top Golden Lions award at the Polish Film Festival in the northern city of Gdynia in September.
Mr. Jones had its world premiere screening at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
Holland’s credits as a film director include Spoor; In Darkness; Europa, Europa; A Secret Garden; and Washington Square.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR
Click on the audio icon above to listen to a report by Radio Poland's Agnieszka Bielawska.