Why did a Hollywood director look for help in Poland?

The new film adaptation of Homer's "The Odyssey", with Matt Damon as Odysseus and Anne Hathaway as Penelope, is undoubtedly one of the largest and loudest productions in recent years. Director Christopher Nolan focused on authenticity - the sea scenes were shot on board real sailing ships, and one of the main ships on the set was "Draken Harald Hårfagre". It is a 35-meter modern reconstruction of a Viking ship, which had already gained fame after the transatlantic cruise to New York.

However, these spectacular scenes would not exist without the work of Polish craftsmen. The Gdańsk sailing company Sail Service was commissioned to sew sails for the film fleets of Agamemnon and Odysseus. In total, as many as 15 sails were created with an area ranging from 12 to 250 square meters.

Ultimately, it ended with about fifteen sails, because it turned out that about fifteen Viking boats were involved - recalls Paweł Roslen, sales manager at Sail Service, in a conversation with RMF FM reporter Stanisław Pawłowski.

Preparing sails for such a huge production required not only precision, but also traditional sailmaking techniques. Each sail was sewn by hand, with attention to historical details. Some of them were prepared in two color variants: black sails for Agamemnon's fleet, red for Odysseus. The largest of them, intended for "Draken", weighed over 300 kilograms.

The process of creating the sail was very complex. Such traditional sails require a lot of time due to traditional techniques: hand embroidery, stitching, ring embroidery. All this is much more labor-intensive. Such a sail takes at least twice as long as a standard sail, emphasizes Paweł Roslen.

A particularly big challenge was finding the right material in an unusual black color. We usually make the sails in white. Here it was necessary to find a dark-colored material that would both correspond to the historical characteristics and be adapted to the historical setting. It was a challenge. We had to establish contacts in Great Britain to obtain such material, adds Roslen.

The production process of the largest sail took less than five weeks. After sewing, adding ropes, fittings and all the finishing elements, the finished sail weighed over 300 kilograms. Working on such large elements required the participation of the entire team.

At one point, a dozen or so people had to roll up a given section to be able to fit it under the machine. Manual work mainly involves the elements of fastening the rigging. These are the finishing cherries on the cake - hand embroidery of fittings, fasteners, sleeves, elements that are mainly used to attach the sail to the yard or to the entire rigging used for sailing - says Grzegorz Polewicz, sailmaker, to RMF FM.

Delivering the sails to the film set was a separate challenge. Transports were mainly by air, and destinations changed almost from week to week.

One week we were sending sails to somewhere on the coast of Greece or Tunisia, the next week to Iceland, then back to Scotland. It was a really big logistical challenge, emphasizes Paweł Roslen.

The involvement of Polish craftsmen was appreciated by the filmmakers, and the effects of their work can be admired on the big screen.

I think that we are proud, above all, that this craft and our sailmaking knowledge, as a Polish sailmaker, has been appreciated and recognized in such a large international project - says Roslen.