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PRODUCERS ON THE MOVE 2022 Slovakia

Jakub Viktorín • Producer, nutprodukcia

"I am always thinking about whether the project can attract an audience"

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- The co-producer of Agnieszka Holland’s Spoor and Sergei Loznitsa’s State Funeral is working on four new fiction and animated projects, and is part of Producers on the Move

Jakub Viktorín • Producer, nutprodukcia

Slovakia's Jakub Viktorín founded the production company nutprodukcia with two Czech partners in 2015 and co-produced Agnieszka Holland’s Spoor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agnieszka Holland
interview: Zofia Wichlacz
film profile
]
and Sergei Loznitsa’s State Funeral [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. Now selected for the EFP's Producers on the Move 2022, he tells us about the four fiction and animation projects he is working on, his interests and the potential of young Central European filmmakers.

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Cineuropa: You are producing very different projects, both thematically and formally. How do you pick them?
Jakub Viktorín: It is a very individual process. However, I am always thinking about whether the project can attract an audience and also whether I am touched by the idea enough to be motivated to work on it over a long period, as it usually takes about five years from the initial idea to make a feature film.

Can you tell us a bit about the projects you're currently working on?
Currently, we are finishing post-production on Michal Blaško's feature debut Victim (Slovakia/Czech Republic/Germany), about an immigrant single mother from Ukraine living in a small Czech city. When her son is attacked, the whole city stands up in solidarity with her family and condemns their Roma neighbours who allegedly committed the crime. After her son wakes up in the hospital, truths and lies become difficult to tell apart, which in turn leads into a personal crisis.

Another project is the Czech-Slovak-Hungarian puppet animation feature for family Tony, Shelly and the Spirit by Filip Pošivač, about a young boy who has been glowing since the day he was born which causes him a lot of trouble. He gets into an adventure to figure out who’s behind the circuit of dark cracks that sucks out all the light from bulbs and even the daylight at his house. It's a film about being different, about friendship and first loves, but above all, about light and darkness.

In pre-production we have another fiction feature debut, the Czech-Slovak-Italian co-production Caravan by Zuzana Kirchnerová, about the single mother of a mentally disabled boy. She has only one little dream: to spend two weeks in Italy at her old friend's house without her son. At the last moment, the plans change and she has no other option except to take him with her.

I am also glad that I have joined the team of the feature film The Forest by Tomas Weinreb and Petr Kazda, which is set to be a Czech-Slovak-Latvian-French co-production. It will be presented at Cannes L'Atelier and we are currently working on financing.

Apart from that we have several projects in our development slate and I hope that we can advance with them in the following months.

You have been very active in the education of young professionals, through the Višegrad Film Forum and NISIMASA. What do you think of the potential of young Central European filmmakers, and opportunities for their education? 
I think that currently, there are no actual borders for education, so regardless of where you are coming from, you have many opportunities to educate yourself in film, and not only through traditional film schools. Having said that, I think that there is a strong potential in up-and-coming filmmakers from Central Europe and one of the goals of our company is to try to find them and work with them.

What do you expect from your participation in Producers on the Move? 
The main goal is to widen my professional network and find potential partners for our company's slate of projects in development. It is also a great opportunity to share experience, information and ideas.

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