The event, one of the world’s most prestigious cinema festivals, is scheduled to take place from September 1 to 11.
“To have my film screened at what is one of the key places on the world film map is a source of genuine pride and honour for me,” Matuszyński said after the festival’s selection panel announced its decision.
“I couldn’t think of a better venue to bring my film to an audience,” he added.
Leave No Traces is based on the real-life story of a young man who witnesses the fatal beating of his friend by the police in the early 1980s, during martial law imposed by the communist regime to crush the Solidarity movement.
Determined to testify about the killing in court, he must stand up to the full force of Poland’s communist regime.
Film producers Leszek Bodzak and Aneta Hickinbotham have said they are happy that, thanks to the film’s premiere in Venice, the world will learn about an important fragment of Polish history—the case of Grzegorz Przemyk, a high school student beaten to death by police.
Leave No Traces is co-produced by France and the Czech Republic. It is due to go on general release in Poland in the autumn.
Matuszyński’s previous feature, The Last Family, a biopic of late-20th-century painter Zdzisław Beksiński and his troubled family, has had a successful run in many countries.
(mk/gs)