The Focus on the Czech Republic section at Krakow Film Festival (in cinemas 29 May to 5 June, online 3–12 June) will include the latest documentary and short films from the Czech Republic as well as a program for children and teens. Various festival meetings will give representatives of the Czech and Polish film industry an opportunity to network and establish cooperation in the field of co-productions. The audience at the Pod Wawelem open-air cinema will get to see cult Czech bedtime cartoons.
FOCUS ON THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Peculiarity of Fisherman's Soul (dir. Ivana Pauerová Miloševičová, 77’) - East Silver Caravan
A group of six good-natured men embark on a fishing foray to distant Norway. They are united by long-term friendship and desire for male adventure. Like another 15,000 Czechs, our heroes pack again their fishing rods, waterproof jackets, lunch boxes and cartons of beer and as every year, they leave behind their partners, pubs and homes.
True Story podcast
Anny (dir. Helena Třeštíková, 66’)
Anny didn’t become a sex worker till she was 46, but since then, she’s kept returning to the streets of Prague, rain or shine, as cars pass by at a snail’s pace. Helena Třeštíková’s film crew also kept returning to Anny in the years from 1996 to 2012. This is the modus operandi of the Czech director (star guest at IDFA in 2018): she follows ordinary people for years in what she has dubbed “time-lapse documentaries.” These longitudinal projects also indirectly capture the larger lines of history—in this case, the economic crisis years that sometimes prompt Anny to muse on communism.
On Your Marks! (dir. Mária Pinčíková, 75’)
Prague, July 2018. Fifteen thousand women and men of all generations gather together in one place to give a mass gymnastics performance. They all belong to Sokol, an apolitical movement established in the 19th century to foster self-development within a democratic community. We follow the participants of this huge endeavor with all their failures and victories. As the date of the show approaches, the participants feel more and more pressure, which leads to many intense situations. A human comedy that tells a lot about the society we live in today.
I Want You If You Dare (dir. Dagmar Smržová, 84’)
A film about disabled women and their desires. The story is spiced by the extrovert nature of the heroines and the controversial situations they are captured in. The main character, Jana, 27, has DMO and can’t move. She’s been searching for intimate assistants on the Internet for a long time, wanting to experience love making and have at least a sense of normal life. Her mother, instead of stepping out of a vicious circle of unsuccessful relationships and addictions, seeks help for herself, Jane and her second daughter, blind Katherine, in dark powers and tarot cards.
Every Single Minute (dir. Erika Hníková, 80’) - East Silver Caravan
The Hanuliaks, a couple from Slovakia, have decided to bring up their son according to Kamevéda, a complex approach to developing the child’s motor abilities and intellect. Unique in its depth of focus, this reflection on child-rearing documents a year in the life of four-year-old Miško, where not a minute is wasted since there is no room for boredom and moments of rest are merely preparation for the next achievement.
True Story podcast
A New Shift (dir. Jindřich Andrš, 91’) - Ex Oriente Film / East Doc Platform, East Silver Caravan
Tomas has been working underground as a coal miner for 25 years. When the mine has to close due to the general decline of coal mining, he is offered a new career as a computer programmer. He enrolls in a state-funded re-education programme, preparing him for one of the most in-demand jobs. Tomas takes up the challenge and gets ready to transform his life radically. But will a forty something long-haired, subterranean punk rocker who has spent his whole life performing hard physical labour ever fit in with the young and trendy digital crowd?
True Story podcast
FILMS IN OTHER PROGRAM SECTIONS
DocFilmMusic competition:
Kapr Code (dir. Lucie Králová, 91’)
A Documentary Opera featuring the contradictory life of progressive composer and prominent communist Jan Kapr (1914-88), Stalin award laureate, later banned in socialist Czechoslovakia. While Kapr's life escalates towards pivotal moments, we follow opera songs reflecting these crucial life junctures, those establishing an artist’s fate. The film explores the nature of memory, and narration, using Kapr's personal, never before seen amateur films manifesting his humor, inner struggles and desire to leave traces for eternity.
Documentary competition:
Reconstruction of Occupation (dir. Jan Šikl, 100’) - East Silver Caravan
The director Jan Šikl has collected for more than 30 years amateur films of different families. Recently, he has found 3.5 hours of professionally filmed material that captures the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies to Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. Nobody has seen the footage since. Jan Šikl begins to search who is captured in the videos and where it takes place. The memories of specific events come back to life. It incarnates the picture of a historical event and its relation to the present.
True Story podcast
Documentary competition:
At Full Throttle (dir. Miro Remo, 85’) - East Doc Platform, East Silver
The intimate story of a couple, in which they uncover their demons and reveal to us complicated paths that have led them from their personal inferno. This story is about new beginnings and dealing with our own mistakes.
Kids&Youth Fest:
Chickens, Virus and Us (dir. Filip Remunda, 74’) - East Silver Caravan
A delightful tale about one family's experiment during the coronavirus crisis. By casually exploring the adoption of chickens, this Czech family discovers the challenges inherent in the commercial egg industry.
