The film opens at a performance of Jan Lewan's (Black) polka band in Pennsylvania. The Polka King is based on a 2009 documentary about Lewan, The Man Who Would Be Polka King, directed by Joshua Brown and John Mikulak. It was released on Netflix on January 12, 2018. It premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2017.
The film stars Jack Black as Lewan, as well as Jenny Slate, Jason Schwartzman, and Jacki Weaver. The film is about real-life Polish-American polka band leader Jan Lewan, who was imprisoned in 2004 for running a Ponzi scheme. The Polka King is an American biographical comedy film directed by Maya Forbes and written by Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky.
