The Czech Joy section will this year present 18 films by Czech documentary makers. This year, they shed light on poor working conditions, social agencies taking children away from parents in Norway, issues related to the prospective future prime minister Andrej Babiš, as well as the former communist leader Milouš Jakeš.
“I wanted to shoot a story of an average person, a self-made man who worked his way up to the top and then suffered a fall. Jakeš’s story is inspiring also in that it illustrates what type of people were ruling in communist Czechoslovakia,” says director Petr Křemen describing his relationship to the main protagonist of his film Milda.
The issue of poor work conditions in the Czech Republic is dealt with documentarian Apolena Rychlíková in her film Czech Journal: The Limits of Labour, in which she follows journalist Saša Uhlová experiencing work conditions in worst paid jobs – for instance in a poultry processing plant, in a laundry and behind a supermarket checkout counter.
This year, Czech Joy will focus on films on the borderline between documentary and fiction film. Bo Hai by Dužan Duong recounts an authentic story from Prague’s Vietnamese-run convenience store. The Frog narrates the story of robber Julius to the film festival in Cannes. Director Petr Václav cast a real convict in the main role, who got a permit to leave jail only for the shooting, and did not work with a script. Everything Will Be Fine by Robin Kvapil is an authentic probe into the life in Brno.
Authors will be personally present to introduce their films Batalives (dir. Petr Babinec, Karolína Zalabáková), SAMA (dir. Otakar Faifr), Non Parents (dir. Jana Počtová) and Peasant Common Sense (dir. Zuzana Piussi and Vít Janeček).
"We are very thrilled that the Czech documentary scene has taken a new breath. This year’s Czech Joy section features 18 films, and other new titles are included in sections Testimony and Exprmntl.cz. Many of them look for a very unique form of expression, relevant topics and ambition to appeal to large audiences. Their characteristic factor is the desire to comment on social reality", says the festival director Marek Hovorka.
Check out the full lists of Czech films in the Jihlava's programme sections:
Czech Joy (a prestigious competition for the best Czech documentary)
Exprmntl.cz (a competition survey of the latest Czech experimental films)
FAMU presents (a selection of the most remarkable documentaries produced over the past year)
Czech Television documentaies (current production of Czech TV)
Check out the complete programme of the 21.Jihlava IDFF
