22/09/2005

The award winning Napola ("Napola - Elite für den Führer"), a historical drama by Dennis Gansel, returns to Prague, this time as one of the four new releases in the Czech cinemas, September 22.
Napola is a German production but with a few Czech ties. It was shot partially in the Czech capital and was in competition in the Karlovy Vary Film Festival last year where Max Riemelt won the best actor prize and Gansel was nominated but did not receive a Crystal Globe. Gansel (The Phantom, Girls on Top) also wrote the screenplay, which had previously won the German Film Award 2003 for Best Unproduced Script, together with Maggie Peren (Kiss and Run, Ganz und gar). It is the story of two young men, Friedrich (Max Riemelt) and Albrecht (Tom Schilling) who are chosen to attend a Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt (National-Political School, or "napola"), one of the elite Nazi schools, in 1942. Together they have to face up to the difficulties of growing up in one of the most turbulent times in European history.
The film, released earlier in Germany, at the beginning of the year, is produced by Molly von Fürstenberg, Viola Jäger and Harald Kügler for Olga Film, in a co-production with Stephan Gärtner from Seven Pictures Film, and with support from the Bavarian Film Fund FFF.

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No Czech films are out this week but the public should be in for a treat next week, when Doblba!, the first feature of well-known television producer Petr Vachler, is released. The film’s original premiere date was October 6, but was brought forward to fill a void of almost three weeks where no local productions were scheduled for theatrical release. Doblba! is a Christmas black comedy where three brothers with totally different characters suddenly become rich and realize that nothing “is the same as it was before”. Doblba! is produced by Vachler’s own company VAC (Vachler Art Company) in association with Czech TV and is distributed by Bonton Film.