12/05/2022 - Czech director-producer Matěj Chlupáček has started shooting his sophomore feature, which probes gender roles against a genre backdrop

Europe’s youngest director to make his debut, Czech filmmaker and producer Matěj Chlupáček, has started shooting his sophomore effort, Dawn. Chlupáček debuted as an 18-year-old with Touchless [+see also:
trailer
interview: Matěj Chlupáček
film profile] in 2013 and went on to forge a successful career as a producer working on Viktor Tauš’s miniseries Rats, which was sold internationally and which he also co-directed, and producing the one-shot feature Hany [+see also:
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interview: Michal Samir
film profile], The Noonday Witch [+see also:
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interview: Jiří Sádek
film profile] and Shadowplay. Now, the young director seems intent on following a genre-leaning career trajectory with the period crime-drama Dawn.

“I think Dawn has the potential to captivate the audience because it is a modern period piece. I have a feeling that this trend is already quite evident in the world, with filmmakers looking at historical events through the lens of the present. This means that the story could easily take place today, but the setting, with its historical contours, gives it depth and context,” says the director.

During the pre-war period of 1937, young, pregnant doctor Helena arrives in the city of Svit. The real-life city was built by Jan Antonín Baťa, based on the vision of his half-brother, progressive entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa, for the employees of their factory. This utopian vision of Baťa’s serves as a backdrop for the story. Helena is the wife of a factory director in Svit. The strange discovery of a dead, intersex embryo turns the city upside down. Helena decides to find out the truth behind it, despite the revelation of a political conspiracy.

Chlupáček explains that he set the story in Baťa’s era in order to emphasise the film’s social dimension, addressing gender norms and roles. “For us, the world of Baťa represents a relatively strict division of what men do, what women do, where women belong and where they should no longer belong. What Helena discovers during the investigation gradually reveals the gender issues of the time, and the position of women in society, which is still a topical issue. And another thing is the political aspect, where we follow the story of the investigation, the outcome of which is actually decided in advance, which is also very contemporary,” notes the director.

The script has been penned by one of the busiest screenwriters in the Czech Republic, Slovak scribe Miro Šifra, who wrote all the episodes of Rats and co-wrote The Red Captain [+see also:
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film profile]. He is considered the youngest generation’s most talented domestic writer. Cinematographer Martin Douba (Rats, Moments [+see also:
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interview: Beata Parkanová
interview: Beata Parkanová
film profile]), like the director, has cited Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well as Edward Hopper as visual influences. The producers also hired seasoned international professionals – Natasha Leonnet (La La Land, First Man) will be doing colour grading, and Simon Goff, a Grammy winner for his contributions to the score for Chernobyl, and who also worked on the soundtrack to Joker, is composing the music for Dawn. The Czech-Slovak cast is led by Eliška Křenková (Bird Atlas [+see also:
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interview: Marko Škop
interview: Milan Ondrík
film profile]), Marián Mitaš (Kryštof [+see also:
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film profile]), Luboš Veselý (Kryštof), Martha Issová (Zatopek [+see also:
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interview: David Ondříček
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Dawn is being produced by Maja Hamplová and Matěj Chlupáček, of Barletta, and co-produced by Rastislav Šesták, of Slovak production outfit DNA Production. The film was supported by the Czech Film Fund, Czech Television, Radio and Television Slovakia and Creative Europe. Bontonfilm handles the theatrical release in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The domestic premiere is scheduled for autumn 2023.