22/08/2006

Filip Renc is finishing in Prague initial shooting of his new film At Your Own Risk (Na Vlastni nebezpeci), an action drama set originally in the Balkans.

The main story, about a man looking in the Carpathian mountain valleys for clues of his father’s death in a kayaking accident, is intertwined with that of a group of people on a rafting trip that goes seriously wrong.

The Czech director – whose two last films, From Subway With Love (Roman pro zeny, 2005) and Rebels (Rebelove, 2001) have both been comedies – says he is going back to the genre that is closer to his heart, and to his art. “I love adventures. But, even more, I want to do away with the Prague cliché of films always inspired by the café and house [situation]”, comments Renc, who many believe has never surpassed himself after the critical success of his 1991 debut feature Requiem For a Maiden (Requiem pro panenku).

Renc promises a raw, documentary-like style for At Your Own Risk. “This is about exhausting all your inner strength in the battle for survival. This is about facing an excursion that turns into a nasty dream”, he says. The script, co-written by the director and Josef Urban, was inspired by a real adventure that both men lived through in Montenegro three years ago.

Renc admits that the film version of the story has been significantly “polished up” and it now takes place on the border between Serbia and Romania. The latter is, in fact, the country where the Czech production will move next year for the majority of the exteriors.

The film has a budget of approximately €1m and is being produced by Rudolf Biermann’s InFilm and Tomas Hoffman’s Infinity, along with TV Nova. It is expected to premiere in late 2007 or early 2008.