31/08/2006

Documentary film is back on the big screen in Czech Republic. A total of eight titles are planned for distribution in the next two months, five of which are Czech and/or Slovak productions. The theatrical titles are mostly in digital format (DVD) and will be screened in small film clubs, which, however, does not diminish the fact that there is an audience for quality documentary filmmaking in the heart of Europe.

The doc wave will hit the big screen on September 1 with Richard Dindo’s Swiss production Who Was Kafka (Wer War Kafka), about the famous Czech-born writer, which was shot mostly in Prague and already premiered in Switzerland last January.

Next week sees the premiere of Marko Skop’s Other Worlds (Ine svety), a film about the diversity of cultures at the edge of the EU’s borders, which won the audience award at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – the first time a documentary has won such an acclaim.

Skop’s is a Slovak co-production with Czech TV, but three other films are Czech-made, something that has not gone unnoticed by the country’s media recently. They revel on the comeback of a genre that has always been very close to the Czech mentality and remind audiences that this “revolution” was kick-started two years ago by Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak’s controversial Czech Dream (Cesky sen), a documentary that won numerous awards, including the Golden Iris at the 2005 Brussels International Film Festival, and Erika Hnikova’s Beauty Exchange (Zeny pro meny).

Hnikova also directed one of this year’s Czech titles, Sejdeme se v Eurocampu, which is to premiere in the third week of September. Two other Czech documentaries, Kupredu levá, kupredu pravá (lit. “Forward Left, Forward Right”) and Závis - kníze pornofolku pod vlivem Griffitovy Intolerance will premiere on November 2.