2020 Arkhaios Film Festival - Virtual Edition

River of Treasures

Expired October 12, 2020 3:59 AM
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“River of Treasures” is an adventure film on a succesful treasure hunt. This treasure is legendary, priceless collection of marble art objects that belonged to the Polish king. It disappeared 350 years ago during the war between Poland and Sweden. Most probably went underwater in unknown location. When one archaeologist finds a collection of half burnt king's letters in the archives the long search for the precious treasure begins for good... 


A small expedition of archaeologists, divers and filmmakers set out to find it. The explorers spend years on the difficult task of penetrating riverbed of the Vistula with sonars, echosounders and often with just bare hands. The first seasons of the expedition bring no results. The team members are at the brink of giving up when the huge effort of researchers and hotheads let them narrow the range of the search to a mysterious deep area near old citadel... 

The film takes the audience on an adventurous tour from Warsaw river and castles to Stockholm archives and Uppsala libraries. And back. Filmmakers recreate – with great detail – the unknown history Poland and Sweden and show how both looked like back in 17th century. They also ask gnawing questions: who owns the looted treasures? And who should? 


ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: Marcin Jamkowski is a Storyteller, filmmaker, photographer, writer. Dedicated rock climber and scuba diver. Studied chemistry in Warsaw, screenwriting, directing and documentary film production at Harvard and MIT. The Explorers Club fellow and vice chair of the Polish Chapter of the Club. Former Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic magazine in Poland, TEDx speaker, Canon Ambassador. Focused on expeditions, exploration and popular-science topics.

  • Year
    2018
  • Runtime
    73 minutes
  • Language
    Polish, English
  • Country
    Poland
  • Director
    Marcin Jamkowski, Konstanty Kulik
  • Producer
    Dorota Roszkowska