EXCLUSIVE: Toronto-based genre specialist Raven Banner Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Polish director Marta Giec’s feature directorial debut Òpi ahead of its international premiere at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival later this month.
Rooted in the ancient beliefs and dark folklore of Poland’s ethnocultural Kashubia region, the film follow follows eighteen-year-old Trina as she struggles to escape a suffocating relationship with her mother and a household steeped in tension, buried secrets and generational trauma.
When her aunt Helena and paralyzed grandmother Regina arrive, the fragile boundaries between everyday life, ancestral superstition and Trina’s increasingly disturbing nightmares begin to collapse.
Blending psychological drama with raw folk horror steeped in the West Slavic mythology of Kashubia, Òpi explores violence, repression and the horrors inherited from one generation to the next. As long-buried truths claw their way to the surface, Trina must fight to reclaim her voice in a world where the supernatural may be far more than folklore.
The cast features Wiktoria Kruszczyńska as Trina, alongside Gabriela Muskała, Magdalena Boczarska, Iwona Bielska and Pitry.
The film, which world premiered in the 51st Polish Film Festival in Gdynia in September, is already creating buzz in Poland with the local trailer racking up close to 400,000 views in less than three weeks.
“Òpi is the kind of horror that gets under your skin and stays there,” said Michael Paszt, Managing Partner of Raven Banner.
“It taps into something ancient and deeply unsettling, drawing on Polish Kashubian folklore to create a world where family trauma, superstition and genuine terror collide. We’re always hunting for bold genre films with a distinct cultural identity, a filmmaker’s vision and the ability to leave a lasting impression. Òpi delivers on all three fronts and we’re stoked to introduce it to audiences.”
With past sales titles including The Sadness, Deathstalker and Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon, Raven Banner is also at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival with Sundown, Rebekah McKendry’s IFC/Shudder horror feature starring Olwen Fouéré, Camille Sullivan and Summer H. Howell.
Raven Banner is a producing partner on the supernatural horror, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, and also handles sales.
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, running October 15–22.