FLOWER BUDS at Busan IFF 2012 - Czech Film Center

NEWSLETTER 3/2012
Národní 28, 110 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic, Tel.: +420 221 105 398, Fax: +420 221 105 303, info@filmcenter.cz, www.filmcenter.cz
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NEW CZECH FILMS
NEW CZECH FILMS
NEW CZECH CZECH FILMS
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VÁŇA
VÁŇA
4 5 6
CZ 2012 | 75 min | DCP
D: Jakub Wagner
Domestic release:
September 5, 2012
A cinematic portrait of the legendary
jockey Josef Váňa gradually reveals
the inner world of his thoughts.
It is not easy to describe his lifestyle
in words, you have to experience it –
see it. We spend a unique, informal
year up close and personal with
Váňa. The film, in its imagery,
becomes Váňa and it also goes
behind the scenes of the sport of
steeplechase, which isn’t always
what feature films would lead us to
believe it is. Váňa acts as a magnet
on people wherever he appears.
There is unbelievable electricity just
when you say his name.
VE STÍNU
IN THE SHADOW
KONFIDENT
THE CONFIDANT
CZ, SK 2012 | 108 min | DCP
D: Juraj Nvota
Cast: Jiří Mádl, Jan Budař,
Ondřej Vetchý, Michaela
Majerníková
Domestic release: July 5, 2012
A film about friends that the regime
brings together and divides. The
occupation of Czechoslovakia in
1968. Adam is an amateur radio
enthusiast. He works in the Svazarm,
the Union for Cooperation with the
Army. The following year, during
normalisation, an Interior Ministry
decree merges their division with
a section of the State Security. The
radio amateur becomes
a professional, a technical employee
in charge of wiretaps. One day he
finds out that they are also listening
to him... The film is based on real
events. The story of the young
amateur radio enthusiast who
became the secret service’s centre of
interest is based on information
archived in the files of the Nation’s
Memory Institute in Bratislava.
CZ, PL, SK 2012 | 100 min | 35 mm,
DCP
D: David Ondříček
Cast: Ivan Trojan, David Švehlík,
Soňa Norisová, Sebastian Koch,
Marek Taclík, Jiří Štěpnička
Domestic release:
September 13, 2012
An exciting detective story takes
place with the dramatic events of
the 1950’s in the former
Czechoslovakia in the background.
Captain Hakl is investigating
a robbery in a jewellery shop. Major
Zenke, a police specialist from the
GDR, takes over Hakl’s investigation
on orders from the State Security.
Under his direction it appears that
the stolen gold was to be used by
the Jewish community to “finance
the support of Zionist terrorism.” As
an experienced detective, however,
Hakl’s instinct tells him all is not as
it seems and he continues the
investigation on his own. But can
one just man hold his own in a fight
with the well-coordinated network of
the communist police?
BASTARDI 3
BASTARDS 3
International Premiere of
FLOWER BUDS
by Zdeněk Jiráský
in the FLASH FORWARD competition
at Busan IFF 2012
October 10 at 7:00 p.m. Cinema 2
October 7 at 2:00 p.m. Megabox Haeundae 3
October 12 at 7:00 p.m. Megabox Haeundae 9
NEJVĚTŠÍ PŘÁNÍ
THE GREATEST WISH
CZ 2012 | 80 min | DCP, DVD
D: Olga Špátová
Domestic release:
September 20, 2012
The protagonists of the full-length
film The Greatest Wish are the first
adult generation that was formed in
a free society following forty years
of Communism. Olga Špátová filmed
young people reflecting on the
seemingly banal question “What is
your greatest wish?” in schools,
prisons, at demonstrations, in the
city and in the country. Outcasts of
society, ambitious professionals,
lovers, believers and civic activists
all open their hearts to her. Birth is
present, as is dying. The Director
used a unique opportunity to
compare the values of her peers
with two previous generations using
archive material from the years 1964
and 1989 from films of the same
name by her father, a classic of
Czech documentaries, Jan Špáta.
7 8 9
CZ 2012 | 97 min | DCP, DVD
D: Tomáš Magnusek
Cast: Tomáš Magnusek, Rudolf
Hrušínský ml., Ilona Svobodová,
Jan Tříska, Tomáš Töpfer,
Kateřina Brožová
Domestic release:
September 20, 2012
The teacher Tomáš Majer, who came
to one former special school in 2010,
has disappeared. He came to the
school a few months after his sister,
also a teacher, was murdered. The
boys that murdered Jana Majerová
died mysteriously during the school
year. It seems that Tomáš Majer most
likely cold-bloodedly revenged his
sister’s death. Is there no problem
with that? Will the police apprehend
him? Will he face trial? What do the
children’s parents think? And Tomáš
Majer’s parents? Society? What will
happen when similar schools are
shut down? The film that shocked the
public two years ago is coming to its
conclusion. A drama that plainly
shows the hard reality of this day
and age, that shows how far things
can go it we only idly watch...
POLSKI FILM
POLSKI FILM
CZ, PL 2012 | 113 min | 35 mm,
DCP
D: Marek Najbrt
Cast: Tomáš Matonoha, Pavel
Liška, Josef Poláček, Marek
Daniel, Jana Plodková, Jan
Budař
Domestic release: July 7, 2012
Tomáš Matonoha, Pavel Liška, Josef
Polášek and Marek Daniel met
during their studies and created
a creative foursome bound together
by close friendship. As time went by,
they saw that even though they
were successful as actors, they
encountered a wide range of
struggles for existence and
existential problems and doubts. In
their forties, they decide to “travel
back in time” and shoot a film about
their youth, vanished energy, lost
illusions and long-gone naivety.
Unexpectedly, a story emerges about
friendship, crisis and absurdity in the
life of an actor, balancing between
reality and illusions.
CESTA Z LESA
TO THE WOODS
CZ 2012 | 110 min | DCP
D: Tomáš Vorel
Cast: Tomáš Hanák, Tomáš Vorel
Jr., Anna Linhartová, Bolek
Polívka, Eva Holubová, Bára
Schlesingerová, Jiří Schmitzer
Domestic release: October 4, 2012
Honza Marák has long since left his
career in IT behind him and has
bought a cottage at the end of
a small village, where he has settled
in with his wife Markéta, daughter
Anyna and son Sayen. He works in
the forest as a general labourer. The
Papoš family are farmers of long
standing in the community. Their son
Ludva Papoš jr. does not live on the
farm with his parents and he refuses
to tend the farm with his father. He
studied forestry college and lives in
a gamekeeper’s lodge in the middle
of the forest, all alone with his dog.
After work he goes to shoot pests
when, one night, he encounters the
nymph Anyna, a vegetarian...
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SVATÁ ČTVEŘICE
THE HOLY QUATERNITY
CZ 2012 | 78 min | 35 mm, DCP
D: Jan Hřebejk
Cast: Jiří Langmajer, Marika
Procházková, Hynek Čermák,
Viktorie Čermáková, Luděk
Munzar, Jana Gýrová
Domestic release: August 28, 2012
Ondra and Vítek, electricians from the
same company, who receive an offer
for an exotic “summer job” on
a Caribbean island where a hurricane
had destroyed the electric lines.
Ondra and Vítek are friends and
neighbours from a duplex in which
they and their families live in
absolute harmony. Their wives, Dita
and Marie, are friends and Ondra’s
teenage sons are dating Vítek’s
teenage daughters. It is simply an allencompassing
idyllic situation, except
for one thing: boredom in the
bedroom. So when fate throws them
a gauntlet in the form of a foreign
business trip, they pick up the
gauntlet and their wives and head off
to the Caribbean. And here, in this
exotic paradise, they concoct a plan
after which their sex lives will never
be the same, or boring, again.
KAREL REISZ, TEN FILMOVÝ
ŽIVOT
KAREL REISZ, A LIFE OF FILM
CZ 2012 | 90 min | DCP, DVD
D: Petra Všelichová
Domestic release: October 4, 2012
A documentary film about Karel Reisz,
next to Miloš Forman the most
famous filmmaker of Czech origin.
The film captures an interesting
personal and professional story of
a man who used his childhood in
Ostrava and Czechoslovakia as the
foundation for the establishment of
Free Cinema and the British New
Wave. The Free Cinema films are
a valuable legacy – fascinating,
beautiful, sometimes hopeful and
often sad, but always authentic. In his
first films the substantial influence of
Ostrava can be seen, a city that is
fascinating, often sad, but full of life
and truth. A city that formed his
cinematic poetry.

INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
TELEGRAM
FILM COMMISSION NEWS
In your film you deal with the theme of addiction to gambling machines,
which is not discussed all that often. Why did you choose that theme?
I was growing up right when these machines were starting to find a foothold here
in this country. Pubs and bars that had them immediately lost their magic, there
immediately grew up a new category of customer. The speed with which many of
them lost their family, friends and possessions was astounding. I knew one guy
and it took him about half a year. Today he is homeless, having lost his mother’s
flat and remaining hundreds of thousands of crowns in debt to suckers he used to
know. To this day this problem has not been solved, with the exception of a few
enlightened town halls. Politicians fight about who is going to get the proceeds
from gambling, but it doesn’t occur to anyone that eliminating it would help
society far more. The laws are set up so that the state and the municipality get
rich on the operation of gambling machines, there is almost no public education
and the gamblers keep on losing their loved ones’ possessions. I have never heard
of anyone getting rich off these games,
because it is set up for just the
opposite. I wanted to point out what
I think is an anachronism in this day
and age and I am ashamed that
nothing has changed over these last
twenty years.
You casted lesser-known actors in
the film. How did you choose the
performers?
It was a question of genre with Flower
Buds. The overuse of a few famous
actors in Czech films today has only
persuaded me that, while it may lead
to a bit of a larger audience, it
definitely does not help credibility. And
truthfulness is the essence of the
The 16th International Ji.hlava festival of documentary films brought an
untraditional accompanying program from 25 August to 1 September 2012. The
Live Cinema project, featuring projections in cutting rooms and in the directors’
homes, will be taking place for the fifth year in Prague. Audiences will experience
discussions with those most competent, the actual authors of the selected
documentary films. Prague’s Live Cinema begins on 25 August with a projection of
a long-awaited film that will be released to official distribution at the end of
September. Viewers that want to see a film right before completion should be
sure not to miss the projection of The Greatest Wish from Director Olga Špátová,
right in the cutting room when the film is currently being completed.
The exhibition of Czech cinematography
travelling around Germany, our closest
neighbour, under the name Czech on Tour
presents a cross-section of Czech film over the
last few years. The exhibition is based on
former successful events that the CFC organised
in Germany and in Great Britain. The exhibition’s
opening ceremony will take place on September
22 in the Metropolis Cinema in Hamburg, where
Petr Nikolaev’s film It Gonna Get Worse,
dedicated to the Czech Underground wave of
the 70’s, will be shown. The director will
introduce it in person, just like his most recent
film Lidice. The Hamburg exhibition will present another 4 films. A selection from
nine Czech films will gradually be shown in seventeen German cities as part of
Czech on Tour, lasting until the spring of 2013. These will include, in addition to
Nikolaev’s two films, the following feature films: Ondříček’s Grandhotel, Trojan’s
Identity Card, A Night Too Young by Olmo Omerzu and Eighty Letters from Václav
Kadrnka, which will be supplemented by the full-length documentaries Citizen
Havel (dir. P. Koutecký and M. Janek), Marital Etudes, 20 Years Later (dir. H.
Třeštíková) and Matchmaking Mayor (dir. E. Hníková).
BUSY FILM AUTUMN IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Jean-Pierre Ameris’ film L’homme qui rit
(The Man Who Laughs), shot in the
Czech Republic in spring of this year,
saw its world premiere at the 69th
Venice International Film Festival. The
French-Czech coproduction served as
the festival’s closing film. The
production received support from the
Film Industry Support Program (FISP), which offers international productions
rebates of up to 20% on qualifying spend, in 2011 and 2012. With its Venice
premiere, The Man Who Laughs is another high-profile example of the success of
the Czech incentives. A Royal Affair, another European coproduction which
received support from the FISP, won two awards at the 62nd Berlin International
Film Festival in February.
Czech Film Commission supported
establishment of four new regional
film offices in interesting Czech
regions outside of Prague. In most
developed countries in the world,
regional film offices are quite
common. But until recently, the Czech
Republic had only a national film
office – the Czech Film Commission.
Czech regional film offices do not yet
have funds to support filmmaking. However, they can help in negotiations with
officials, recommend suitable locations, and connect filmmakers with authorities
and property owners. Film office representatives can also help negotiate cheaper
accommodation and support location scouting. The main goal is to ensure troublefree
shooting so filmmakers are happy to come back to the region. On the other
hand, filmmaking helps to promote the regions and supports tourism.
Q & A WITH
ZDENĚK
JIRÁSKÝ
the director of Flower Buds, premiering
internationally in the Flash Forward
competitive section of the Busan
International Film Festival
genre that I decided to use to tell this story. I wanted to make it easier for the
audience to be able to identify with the characters. Of course I also chose the
actors on the basis of the type and quality of their acting. Vladimír Javorský is an
exception to the rule, but his quality simply made him a shoe-in for that role.
Do you think that the audience in Korea will find some characteristics
they have in common with the protagonists from Flower Buds?
I would say that they will easily understand the social fears and the desire for
a better life. Dreaming about something we don’t have, though we know it
vicariously… I think that is the same the world over. When a young girl in Eastern
Europe gets pregnant, she plans her future with similar hopes as her peers in the
Far East or in Central America. And when a father of a family loses the certainty
that he can get his loved ones out of a difficult situation that he himself got them
in, then if he is a man he reaches for an extreme solution in Africa just like in
Northern Europe. The only motif that
might not be understandable on an
international level is the Spartakiad
exercises and the resentment
connected with this. But I am prepared
to explain this to people in Korea and
in America.
How are your other film projects
coming along? What are you
working on now?
I am writing a new screenplay,
a psychological drama about three
women. The producer Viktor Schwarcz
and I are preparing it for production.
I am studying the environment, doing
research, working with the
dramaturge...
Fein.Košt, an evening of short films, will take place on October 19 in Dresden as
part of Czech on Tour. The Czech Film Center, together with AG-Kurzfilm, will be
presenting the latest short films from the Czech Republic and Germany here. The
attending Czech and German directors will discuss their films with the audience
after the projections.
The two Czech social dramas Flower
Buds by Zdeněk Jiráský and Gypsy by
Martin Šulík are shortlisted and are
waiting to be nominated for the
European Film Academy Award.
Alois Nebel by Tomáš Luňák made it
already on the list: The Czech
animation feature is nominated in the category EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM 2012 together with Pirates (UK/USA) by Peter Lord and
Wrinkles (ES) by Ignacio Ferreras. The nominations 2012 will be announced at the
beginning of November. The award ceremony of the 25th European Film Awards with
the presentation of the winners will take place in Malta on Saturday, 1st December.
At the end of August Jan Hřebejk started shooting
his new film Honeymoon. Honeymoon represents
a continuation of the long-standing cooperation
between the author-director team of Petr
Jarchovský and Jan Hřebejk. Anna Geislerová will
appear in the starring role. Honeymoon concludes
a loose trilogy of modern-day stories comprised of
the films Kawasaki’s Rose and Innocence. The common denominator of these
films is a secret hidden in the past that comes back to haunt the lives of the
characters years later. The Falcon distribution company is planning on a premiere
in the autumn of 2013. The film’s producers are Fog’n’Desire Films, K Film, Czech
Television and Samastinor. The film is being co-produced on the part of Slovakia
by Sokol Kollar and Trigon Production.
Norwegian director Bard Breien
is shooting his second feature
The Down’s Detective in the
Czech Republic.The film is
a Norwegian-Czech-Danish-
German co-production The story
is about a man with Down’s
syndrome who wants to be
a private detective. He has to
pursue a former ice-skating
legend who is now down on his
luck. Svein Andre Hofso, who
has Down’s syndrome, will play
the lead. Prague will stand in for Oslo in the film. Friland’s production partners are
Nimbus (Denmark), Unafilm (Germany) and Evolution Films (Czech Republic).
TrustNordisk will handle international sales and Cinemart has Czech rights. The
film has received financial support from the Norwegian Film Institute, the Nordic
Film and Television Fund, the Danish Film Institute, the Czech State Fund for the
Support and Development of Czech Cinema, and Eurimage. Breiein’s first film The
Art of Negative Thinking won the best director prize at KVIFF in 2007. The film
went on to win the Czech Lion for best foreign film and then was adapted as
a stage production.