A powerful and unforgettably lyrical film about love, loss and redemption, "Fugitive Pieces" tells the story of Jakob Beer, a man whose life is transformed by his childhood experiences during WWII. The film is based on the beloved and best-selling novel by Canadian poet Anne Michaels.

Jakob's story (Robbie Kay) begins in Poland in 1942, when he is nine years old. Nazi soldiers have murdered his parents and abducted his teenage sister, Bella. Traumatized by this horrific event, Jakob sneaks out of his hiding place and struggles to survive. He is found by Athos Roussos (Rade Sherbedgia), a Greek archaeologist working at a Polish dig site in Biskupin. Moved by the child's plight, Athos boldly smuggles Jakob out of Poland and hides him in his home on the island of Zakynthos in Greece, also occupied by the Germans. Jakob spends the last years of the Occupation in Athos' tender care.

After the war, Athos and Jakob immigrate to Canada, where Athos has accepted a teaching position with a University. As he matures, Jakob (now played by Stephen Dillane) begins a new life, studying, writing, and eventually falling in love with Alex (Rosamund Pike), a beautiful young woman. Yet he remains haunted by his parents' death and the question of his sister's fate. This terrible burden makes it impossible for him to live in the moment or to accept love when it is offered to him. Writing offers some relief, but it is not until he meets Michaela (Ayelet Zurer), a gentle soul who truly understands -- and accepts -- his pain, that Jakob allows himself to join the living. The lessons he learns become a legacy to Ben (Ed Stoppard), a child of survivors whose life intersects with Jakob's in meaningful ways.

“I did not witness the most important events of my life,” writes Jakob Beer, the writer and WWII survivor who is the central character in Canadian poet Anne Michaels’ critically acclaimed and internationally best-selling novel, Fugitive Pieces. Orphaned during WWII and propelled to an unforeseen destiny, Beer struggles mightily with the memory of his family’s death, simultaneously tormented and transformed by haunting recollections of his family killed during the war. His story, a powerful personal history and a poetic tale of love, loss, and redemption, is beautifully brought to life in FUGITIVE PIECES, a film based on Michaels’ contemporary classic. Adapted for the screen and directed by Jeremy Podeswa, who was lauded for his previous films THE FIVE SENSES and ECLIPSE, FUGITIVE PIECES is an eloquent and provocative drama that reaffirms the importance of compassion in an often inhumane world. The film’s talented ensemble cast includes Stephen Dillane (THE HOURS, WELCOME TO SARAJEVO), Rade Sherbedgia (BEFORE THE RAIN, EYES WIDE SHUT), Rosamund Pike (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE) and Ayelet Zurer (MUNICH). FUGITIVE PIECES was produced by Robert Lantos, who recently enjoyed great critical and commercial success with his award-winning production, BEING JULIA.

The novel Fugitive Pieces was published in 1996. Universally acclaimed, it won England’s prestigious Orange Prize, Ontario’s Trillium Award, the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Giuseppe Acerbi Literary Award, among others. It was also short-listed for Canada’s Giller Prize. In Canada, Fugitive Pieces was on the national bestsellers’ list for more than two years and the novel has been published in thirty countries. Although many producers approached author Anne Michaels about dramatizing her novel, she was reluctant to give her approval. “I waited a long time before handing it over to anyone to do as a film because I believed that whoever represented this on screen would have to have a deep understanding of the sanctity of it,” she explains. Michaels’ story is complex, poetic, and metaphoric, challenging qualities to preserve in a screen adaptation.

Jeremy Podeswa read the novel when it was first published and was deeply affected by it. “I was incredibly moved by the character’s story, the tragedy in his childhood that haunts him and the woman who transforms his life in adulthood. FUGITIVE PIECES has profound things to say about trauma, memory and the redemptive power of love. I thought it would make an incredible movie,” he recalls. The story stayed with him and after a few years and several directing projects, including THE FIVE SENSES, Podeswa decided to pursue the project. “A Canadian company had the rights to the novel, and I approached them about writing and directing it. They saw THE FIVE SENSES, which had just premiered at Cannes, and liked it, as did the author Anne Michaels, and we decided to go ahead with the film adaptation.”

Michaels was impressed by the fact that Podeswa, whose father is a Holocaust survivor, felt a strong connection to the material. “I knew that Jeremy had a personal stake in the telling of the story and that, in the end, is what moved me,” says Michaels. “He understood that the book was not only about the relationship between memory and history and the relationship between men and women, but the relationship between men and men,” she adds.

Podeswa wanted to capture the essence of the novel as well as its poetry. “It wasn’t about being extremely literal or having everything that was in the book in the movie. But from the beginning, I knew we had to use the specific language of the book, its most distinctive quality. Narration was, in my opinion, essential. Finding an interesting and unexpected way to use the narration became the challenge,” Podeswa explains. “The book deals with narrative in a very complex way and I felt the movie needed to mirror that,” he adds. “The most interesting way to tell the story would be to reflect these “fugitive pieces” by weaving in and out of different periods.”

Both the novel and movie are largely about memory, history and perception. For Podeswa, it was important that the past and the present be
represented on equal terms, which meant that Jakob should live equally in the past and in the present. “The young Jakob and the adult Jakob coexist at the same time, so we see him as a boy and we see him as an adult, living in two time periods simultaneously,” Podeswa explains. “As pure structural form, it really reflects a large part of the theme of the story—that history is in us. Everything that came before us is part of who we are. We are the repository of our family’s histories, of our culture’s history, and our country’s history. We embody that. The past and the present live within us.”

Like Podeswa, producer Robert Lantos was captivated by the novel when he experienced it for the first time. Having produced SUNSHINE,
another epic story about the perseverance of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity, Lantos was not daunted by the challenge of dramatizing Michaels’ intricate and emotionally-charged material. When he discovered the rights had already been optioned, he approached the producer and made a deal. “Jeremy Podeswa was already attached to the film,” recalls Lantos. “I was very impressed with everything he had done. He managed to write a powerful screenplay based on a book that seemed to defy adaptation.”

Podeswa approached the project knowing that casting would be a critical part of the job. He wanted actors who would be credible, but also
thoughtful and connected to the material. “In a way, you’re casting a person whom you want to embody the values of your story,” Podeswa explains. “I set out to cast actors who understood what the script was trying to say and who had an emotional connection with their characters.”

The pivotal role in FUGITIVE PIECES is that of the adult Jakob, a character who is simultaneously burdened and empowered by his past. “This is the story of a man whose entire life is haunted by the events he witnessed as a child, and his guilt for having survived when his parents and sister did not. It’s the story of a man imprisoned by his memory, who in middle age, through the love of a woman, is transformed,” says producer Robert Lantos. “We needed an exceptional actor to pull off a role that is so deeply internal. Jeremy and I thought Stephen Dillane could more than meet the challenge.”

Podeswa knew Dillane to be an actor with a strong emotional center. “He can do very little and speak volumes. And that is very important with this character. I had seen many of his films, but I had also seen his stage work—most recently his one-man MACBETH in Los Angeles, in which he showed an incredible range. Dillane is a serious actor with all the qualities of a leading man. A perfect Jakob,” says Podeswa.

FUGITIVE PIECES also portrays Jakob as a child, and casting this role was very difficult because Podeswa wanted a young actor who was fresh, original and free of mannerisms. He mounted an international search, working with casting directors in London, Prague and Budapest. They auditioned over a hundred and fifty boys before finding 10 year old Robbie Kay. Ironically, although his audition tape came from Prague, Kay was a British expatriate who had been living with his family in Prague for two years. Podeswa was struck by Kay’s intuitive acting talent and his ability to look incredibly fragile. When he immersed himself in his role, Kay became Jakob. His transformation was so complete that Podeswa says it was impossible to find traces of the real Kay in his character.

Rade Sherbedgia was selected as Athos, the Greek archaeologist who rescues young Jakob from certain death in Poland. “Rade, with his amazing presence, life experience, and joie de vivre - all of which he brings to the role - amazingly embodied the combination of depth and life force possessed by Athos,” said Podeswa. Sherbedgia bonded easily with Robbie Kay.

In casting Jakob’s two love interests, Alex and Michaela, Podeswa and Lantos selected two highly accomplished actresses. British actress Rosamund Pike plays Alex, the young, vibrant and modern woman who is attracted to Jakob and mistakenly believes that she can help him escape his own torment. Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer plays Michaela, the gentle intellectual who accepts Jakob as he is, with all his complexities and contradictions. Nina Dobrev was cast as Jakob’s sister Bella, with Ed Stoppard (THE PIANIST) and Rachelle Lefevre rounding out the principal cast as Jakob’s “second family”, Ben and Naomi.

Podeswa encouraged his actors to read the novel, though many were already familiar with it. “The script is quite prismatic and, by design, very selective in what it incorporates from the book. But the book is very helpful in fleshing things out for the actors -- it is a guide for what they’re meant to experience,” says Podeswa. The cast also met author Anne Michaels, who occasionally visited the set. “The conversations I’ve had with the actors have been extremely moving because they really are embodying the book to an incredible degree,” praises Michaels. “The physical likeness to what was in my mind is so potent. I think the film has an extraordinary cast.”

The project was challenging on many levels—writing, producing, acting (many of the cast members had to learn Yiddish and Greek), as well as directing. “It’s such an atypical film from the beginning—a rich poetic movie told in a semi-abstract way with a very intricate narrative. The story weaves in and out of different time periods and countries and there are many characters who float in and out, as well,” Podeswa observes. “On a logistical level, FUGITIVE PIECES was very challenging to direct because we had thirty-eight days to tell a very complex story in a beautiful and unconventional way. But the possibility of making something fresh, new and vital was always there.”

Principal photography began on April 24, 2006. “This was a demanding shoot,” notes Lantos. “We had to film three time periods in two
countries -- in Toronto and Hamilton in Canada, and in Athens and on the islands of Hydra and Lesbos in Greece. I had seen Jeremy’s other work and I felt confident he was up to this great challenge.” Podeswa discovered that shooting on the island of Hydra was more
than just “challenging” -- it was almost impossible. He was drawn to Hydra because of the island’s unusual beauty and long-standing bohemian culture. It was a perfect place for a writer such as Jakob to find peace and inspiration, but Hydra was not an ideal place for a film crew. There are no roads on the island, only passageways and endless flights of stairs. Equipment -- cameras, lights, and all their accoutrements -- had to be carried by donkey.

FUGITIVE PIECES takes place during the 1940s, the 1960s, and the 1970s in Poland, Greece and Canada. To capture these disparate times and locations in a creative and visually exciting way, Jeremy Podeswa turned to cinematographer Gregory Middleton, with whom he had worked on THE FIVE SENSES, production designer Matthew Davies (SAINT RALPH, THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD), and costume designer Anne Dixon. They decided that each of the time periods in the story would have a different look and a subtly different color palette. For the 1940s in Poland and Toronto, moodier and more sober tones were used. But as the story progresses and Jakob moves toward illumination and understanding, the lighting in the film changes. The dark shadows in Poland become softer as Jakob meets Alex, and eventually finds true love with Michaela. Greece, a place of serenity and fulfillment, is always awash with color and light.

The production extensively researched the archaeological site of Biskupin, Poland, the shtetl interiors in the 1940s; Toronto interiors and
exteriors in the 1940s, 1960s and 1970s; and Greek island details in the 1940s and 1970s to create an accurate portrait of settings during those periods. Furthermore painstaking detail went into creating the personal spaces for the individual characters. “I hope we were successful in conveying the fundamentals, but also in creating a sense of the very layered, very textured personalities of the individuals,” says production designer Davies.

Wardrobe remained true to the periods with costume designer Anne Dixon choosing subtle colors for the 1940s, but somewhat brighter colors and bolder patterns for the 1960s and 1970s. “One of our biggest challenges was to turn each scene into a tableau and because the script intertwines periods, we made sure the color palette was very subtle so the change would not be visually jarring,” Dixon explains.

First and foremost, Podeswa set out to bring an emotionally engaging story to the screen. FUGITIVE PIECES is a deeply felt drama that is at once personal and universal. “This story cuts through cultural divides,” says producer Robert Lantos. “It’s a story in which the most noble of human instincts overcomes all the horrors around it.”