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Dutch filmmaker Finn Szumlas has started principal photography on his debut feature “Stairway to Earth,” kicking off a 5-week shoot in the Netherlands.
Leading the film is Polish star Magdalena Koleśnik (“Sweat”) and
Dutch actor Kay Greidanus (“Dit Zijn Wij”), playing two strangers who meet up after a one night stand at at a summer music festival and have one day to make the biggest decision of their lives.
The script for “Stairway to Earth” iwas written by Szumlas and Olga Ponjee. Producers include Edwin Goldman for Goldman Film and Petra Goedings for Phanta Film, with Polish co-producer Ewa Puszczyńska bringing her experience having produced numerous award-winning films including “Cold War,” “Ida” and “The Zone of Interest.” Dutch public broadcaster NTR is also a co-production partner.
Set in present day Leiden, Netherlands and inspired by by the real-life story of how director Finn Szumlas’ Polish father and Danish mother met and became a family, “Stairway to Earth” is described as an “emotional, intimate portrait of chance, choice, and the lives that are shaped by both.”
The film follows Jan and Luiza, who share a single night at a summer music festival in Poland — an impulsive moment of passion that was never intended to last. Weeks later, they awkwardly reunite at a clinic in the Netherlands where Luiza has made an appointment to terminate the unexpected pregnancy.
With twenty-four hours until the procedure, they walk through the historic streets of Leiden during the city’s annual Leidens Ontzet celebrations. Wandering through a city alive with music, history, and celebration, two people with very different lives begin to imagine a future neither of them expected. Luiza, an ambitious Polish professional preparing to leave for New York. Jan, a Dutch gardener happy to let life unfold one day at a time. Between them lies a single day that could change everything.
“’Stairway to Earth’ is a deeply personal project for me, inspired as it is by how my own parents met. We have relocated the story to contemporary times, and I am super excited to be shooting in the very streets where I grew up,” said Szumlas. “As soon as I saw Magdalena and Kay together, I knew that I had found the intimacy, courage and chemistry I was looking for, and that the film was going to work. The backdrop of Leidens Ontzet will almost be a character in the film too, and we will capture the life, music and the rawness of the street festivities on Super 16mm.”
The film production team includes Katja van den Broeke (cinematographer), Jorien Sont (production designer), Manon Blom (costume designer), Pur Thijs (hair and make-up designer), Saida van der Reijd (casting director), Saskia Kievits (editor), and Vincent Sinceretti (sound design).
“Stairway to Earth” is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, Polish Film Institute, NTR, CoBo, and Creative Europe MEDIA.
