Oscar-winning director Volker Schloendorff has comeunder fire from the mother of Poland's Solidarity movement Anna Walentynowiczfor his latest film Die Vergessene Heldin which began shooting atoriginal locations in the Baltic port of Gdansk at the end of October.

In an interview with the Polish dailynewspaper Rzeczpospolita, 76-year-old Walentynowicz said that she wasconsulting with her lawyers about bringing a case against the German director.

According to the newspaper, Walentynowicz had been"furious" about her portrayal in a first version of the screenplay byThe Ninth Day author Andreas Pflueger and described the treatment metedout to her as "loutish".

A colleague from Solidarity days, AndrzejGwiazda said: "Anna is portrayed as an illiterate andthe workers are shown as alcoholics."

In the Berlin-based German daily newspaper taz,But Marianna Rominska of the film's Polish co-producer Paisa Film said: "thefilm is no longer about Anna Walentynowicz, It is about an anonymous femaleworker. We are, after all, shooting a feature film. Unlike a documentary, weneed elements of suspense."

Wolfgang Plehn of the film's Berlin-based productioncompany Provobis Film would only say that "when the film is finished, allof those involved can then make their own judgement."