Martin Ryšavý

Documentary film Lifetransit wants to raise awareness about people whose lives are complicated by several disabilities at once. For example, they have to use electric wheelchair and deal with vision or hearing impairment etc. Looking from the outside, people who don't speak and don't move are often not given a chance to develop their mental and physical capacities and to be involved in the society. There are special institutions that help these people to be involved and live the life they would like to. This film focuses on one of these institutions called Jedličkův ústav and on the people with "combined disabilities" who study at its Practical schools that prepare students to live their future everyday life. This very important topic deserves to be explored and director Martin Ryšavý tells the stories of the people he followed for two years very sensitively, but without pointless pity.

A documentary-scenic film analyzing bullying in institutions and businesses in a interconnected sequence of stories that are compiled into a whole. A large STEM / MARK research from 2013 states that bullying affects 23 percent of employees. Surprisingly, a large percentage of registered cases concerns people working in the public sector or in the state administration, while the reasons for bullying at the workplace differ. In our film we focus on people who went through a long-term traumatic experience of bullying.

The film follows one of the most prominent prisoners of the Military regime in Burma returning to his homeland after 20 years. Presenting journey to the people on both sides of for years divided society gives a different perspective of the possibilities of coexistence, forgiveness and looking at your own life and society. Banyarr wants to know before the 2020 election, whether it's possible to live back in the country. The same simple question is asked by hundreds of millions people, who have fled their countries suffering from harsh regimes or even wars. He wants to know, whether democratic and open development of society is possible, despite of rising contradictions on many levels.

Land of Fire takes us on a journey through the Canadian wilderness, through remote areas of British Columbia where dark shadows of the past lurk in the forests. It is a land whose arteries are roads along which young women disappear. People struggle in vain to save their villages and families from vast forest fires. Lonely cars wander through a dark landscape like predators hunting prey. Only the faces of those who have disappeared witness what happened from the posters along the road.

No matter who we talk to here, everybody has a direct experience with violence, knowing somebody who died in a fight or went missing. People often turn to mythology and rituals in search of answers, they believe that when something bad happens to a person, the spirit leaves for the bush and the body keeps wandering the world without purpose.

We travel to a place that stands on ruins of the old world, a world of magical creatures of the wild that was destroyed long ago. The film is an abstract insight into phenomena of loss, grief and dimensions of living in a place struck by violence and wildfires.

Land of Fire follows a family seeking justice for their sister‘s and daughter’s murder, another family is struggling with the legacy of a community’s dead respected figure. Through the prism of often tragic personal experience the film delves into the interconnectedness of human existence, the clash between modernity and ancient lore, and the profound challenges faced by individuals seeking solace in the wild.

Fires subdue entire valleys, figures by the roadside illuminated only by passing cars look like ghosts, people dance around the fire in remembrance of the dead, and men venture into the woods to hunt bears. Can you find a place of healing in this dark forgotten world?