Films & Schedules - CZECH REPUBLIC

Two ostensibly ordinary middle-aged couples, Marie and Vitek and Dita and Ondra, are linked by more than just a lifelong friendship, a shared house in a small town, and same-aged adolescent children: they are linked by love. Both men, Ondra and Vitek, who are work colleagues, sincerely love their wives, but they each harbor a secret yearning for the other’s wife. When the two of them are offered a job together—restoring the electrical grid on a sparsely inhabited Caribbean island—they leap at the chance to enjoy a little tropical sunshine while launching the kind of cunning plan people in Czech...

Two ostensibly ordinary middle-aged couples, Marie and Vitek and Dita and Ondra, are linked by more than just a lifelong friendship, a shared house in a small town, and same-aged adolescent children: they are linked by love. Both men, Ondra and Vitek, who are work colleagues, sincerely love their wives, but they each harbor a secret yearning for the other’s wife. When the two of them are offered a job together—restoring the electrical grid on a sparsely inhabited Caribbean island—they leap at the chance to enjoy a little tropical sunshine while launching the kind of cunning plan people in Czech sex comedies tend to launch. What ensues is a sunny romp with a couple of (not too) serious questions in the back of its mind. (80 mins.)

Selected Filmography: Cosy Dens (99), Divided We Fall (00), Up and Down (04), Beauty in Trouble (06), Kawasaki’s Rose (09)

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Narrative Feature, Comedy.

Based on the graphic novel trilogy by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromír Svejdík, this superbly atmospheric rotoscope animation employs noirish black-and-white images and an evocative soundtrack to portray the fractured psychology of a man and his country. In summer 1989, Alois Nebel works as a stationmaster in a small village in the Jeseník Mountains, close to the Polish border. Preferring old timetables to people, Nebel lives through his memories, haunted by the violent postwar expulsion of the Germans and getting lost in the mists of time. Encounters with a mysterious mute man and the kind Květa help him to connect the...

Based on the graphic novel trilogy by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromír Svejdík, this superbly atmospheric rotoscope animation employs noirish black-and-white images and an evocative soundtrack to portray the fractured psychology of a man and his country. In summer 1989, Alois Nebel works as a stationmaster in a small village in the Jeseník Mountains, close to the Polish border. Preferring old timetables to people, Nebel lives through his memories, haunted by the violent postwar expulsion of the Germans and getting lost in the mists of time. Encounters with a mysterious mute man and the kind Květa help him to connect the past with the present and to find middle-aged love. Winner of the European Film Award for Best Animated Film, Lunák’s auspicious debut is “destined to become a classic of the form.”—Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival (84 mins.)

First Feature.

Sponsored by LAIKA.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: New Directors, Narrative Feature, Animation.

In 1950s Prague, police detective Hakl is investigating a jewelry store heist, until East German State police specialist Zenke arrives and takes over. Zenke believes that members of the Jewish community are responsible and that an underground ring may be smuggling funds to Zionist terrorists in Israel. Unconvinced, Hakl continues his own investigation. But which version of the truth do the Communist authorities prefer to find? Ondříĉek spins a suspenseful noir tale of standing up to the mistrust and fear in Stalinist, postwar Czechoslovakia. (106 mins.)

In 1950s Prague, police detective Hakl is investigating a jewelry store heist, until East German State police specialist Zenke arrives and takes over. Zenke believes that members of the Jewish community are responsible and that an underground ring may be smuggling funds to Zionist terrorists in Israel. Unconvinced, Hakl continues his own investigation. But which version of the truth do the Communist authorities prefer to find? Ondříĉek spins a suspenseful noir tale of standing up to the mistrust and fear in Stalinist, postwar Czechoslovakia. (106 mins.)

Selected Filmography: Loners (00), One Hand Can’t Clap (03), Grandhotel (06)

This year’s Czech submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

In Czech and German with English subtitles.

FILM REVIEW

Interests: Oscar Submissions, Narrative Feature, German Language.