The Karlovy Vary Worldwide Movie Competition (KVIFF) has unveiled its competitors and different lineups for its 58th version, set to run within the Czech spa city from June 28 to July 6. It additionally set its competitors jury, led by indie movie producer Christine Vachon who might be joined by Australian actor Geoffrey Rush, Hungarian director Gábor Reisz, Icelandic poet and novelist Sjón and Czech actress Eliška Křenková..
Organizers highlighted 15 directorial or feature-directorial debuts on this yr’s official choice and varied world premieres.
In its particular screenings lineup, KVIFF will current the world premiere of Ukrainian filmmaker and former Kremlin prisoner Oleh Sentsov’s new documentary Actual. Sentsov “is currently defending his homeland as a lieutenant in the Ukrainian army, which he joined in the first days of the Russian invasion in February 2022,” the movie description offered by the fest reads. “During one assault, his infantry fighting vehicle was destroyed by enemy artillery. His attempts to organize the evacuation of part of his unit were complicated by the lack of ammunition and incessant Russian fire. The name of the operation was Real, and Sentsov’s eponymous film is a unique immersive experience that offers a hyper-documentary insight into the reality of the war through the eyes of one direct participant.”
Among this yr’s KVIFF competitors lineup are Iveta Grófová’s The Hungarian Dressmaker, which depicts the rise of nationalism in Slovakia within the Nineteen Forties, and Bruno Anković’s Celebration, a movie adaptation of a novel a couple of Croatian village between the years 1926 and 1945 the place right-wing ideology rises. Impolite to Love from Japanese director Yukihiro Morigakia, a couple of marriage “steadily losing its spark,” can even compete for the competition’s Crystal Globe honor for finest competitors movie.
The competitors additionally options such established names as Mark Cousins, who brings A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Issues, about British fashionable painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, to Karlovy Vary, in addition to Noaz Deshe who will debut Xoftex, a couple of Greek refugee camp the place Syrian and Palestinian asylum seekers await information of their refugee standing.
Organizers on Tuesday additionally unveiled this system for Karlovy Vary’s Proxima sidebar, which goals to place the highlight on daring works by younger filmmakers and famend auteurs alike. This yr, it consists of movies in regards to the resort room as a spot the place all people is a stranger, leftist college students being interrupted by the go to of members of a right-wing motion, and Trans Memoria, directed by Victoria Verseau, a documentary diary in regards to the filmmaker’s return to Thailand the place she underwent her transition in 2012.
The Karlovy Vary workforce seen a number of themes slicing throughout varied motion pictures within the lineup. “Freshly revisionist takes on the esthetical canons of a period film. A balanced, caring but also provocative look [at] the fate of a woman in … contemporary society … The immediate influence of political events on the life of an individual human being anywhere in the world. My colleagues and I discovered these themes running through our selection of films,” highlighted KVIFF inventive director Karel Och.
He additionally touted a worldwide cinematic lineup with new works. “15 out of 32 films featured in the official selection are debuts, and we could not be more excited they are accompanied by the brand new works of renowned filmmakers of the likes of Mark Cousins, Oleh Sentsov, Noaz Deshe, Antonin Peretjatko, Beata Parkanova and Burak Cevik,” he mentioned.
Try the complete KVIFF official choice with descriptions of the movies under.
Ai ni ranbou / Impolite to LoveDirector: Yukihiro MorigakiJapan, 2023, 105 min, World premiere
An unsettling drama a couple of marriage which is steadily dropping its spark. Momoko (Noriko Eguchi) leads a good life as a housewife. She clothes elegantly and ensures that the house seems to be excellent, all the way down to the final element; she attends to her husband assiduously and goes to nice lengths to prepare dinner him correct Japanese meals. Are these expressions of affection, or fairly paranoia from the emotional chasm that has opened out between them? And when does devoted care grow to be an obsession? A psychologically exact case historical past of a spent relationship, by which lengthy suppressed ache has risen to the floor. A movie that examines the darkish corners of human frustration and hysteria, the place the need to create one thing good develops into the urge to destroy.
BanzoDirector: Margarida CardosoPortugal, France, Netherlands, 2024, 127 min, Worldwide premiere
In 1907, Alonso arrives on Prince’s Island, the place he has been tasked with treating a personnel tormented by a mysterious affliction referred to as banzo, also referred to as slave nostalgia. These affected really feel an intense homesickness, fall into apathy, lose the energy to dwell, and finally die. Alonso slowly discovers that it isn’t sufficient to deal with the bodily signs; he should perceive the soul of those that have been uprooted. The oppressive environment of the remoted tropical island types the backdrop for a narrative from the darkish colonial previous by which humanity is put to the final word take a look at. Banzo can also be a reminder that there’s multiple option to interpret the previous, and that behind each story is an individual telling the story.
Cì xīn qiè gŭ / PierceDirector: Nelicia LowSingapore, Taiwan, Poland, 2024, 109 min, World premiere
After Han is launched from juvenile jail, the place he served seven years for killing an opponent in a fencing match, he meets his youthful brother and insists on his innocence. Jie believes him, and the torn brotherly bond begins to heal. Behind their mom’s again, Han helps Jie excellent his fencing abilities in order that he can qualify for the nationwide championships. However the initially energetic clinking of sabres is slowly drowned out by silent doubts: is Han actually harmless? Nelicia Low’s gripping atmospheric thriller gives a nerve-wracking duel between the beliefs of concord and the illusions that we challenge onto these near us.
Drie dagen vis / Three Days of FishDirector: Peter HoogendoornNetherlands, Belgium, 2024, 85 min, World premiere
Simply as he does yearly, dad flies from sunny Portugal for a three-day go to to the Netherlands, the drab nation of his start. He has his regular errands to run and he visits his physician for his annual check-up, accompanied by his eccentric grown-up son… This intimate movie gives a glimpse into the connection between two males who’ve grown aside but, as they interact in seemingly mundane actions, little by little they attempt to discover their means again to 1 one other. Three Days of Fish, the second outing by Dutch filmmaker Peter Hoogendoorn, is a mild drama, interlaced with the dry humour typical for the area. The director’s characteristic debut Between 10 and 12 premiered on the Venice IFF.
Elskling / LoveableDirector: Lilja IngolfsdottirNorway, 2024, 101 min, World premiere
Whereas Sigmund is at all times away on enterprise, Maria juggles her profession with childcare and managing the house. Like many different relationships, theirs was additionally all about love and concord within the early levels, nevertheless, after years of married life, the cracks began to look. Sigmund is in the end the one to ask for a divorce, and Maria is pressured to confront her best fears. Whereas ostensibly a divorce drama, this debut by writer-director Lilja Ingolfsdottir however takes us additional, delivering a multilayered character research of a lady experiencing a disaster that leads her to self-knowledge. Loveable isn’t a narrative in regards to the quest for real love; quite the opposite, it takes a recent method to look at up to date concepts of romance, equality throughout the relationship, and the facility of womanhood.
Ema a smrtihlav / The Hungarian DressmakerDirector: Iveta GrófováSlovak Republic, Czech Republic, 2024, 129 min, World premiere
It’s the Nineteen Forties. The Slovak state witnesses the rise of nationalism and it’s not an auspicious time for minorities. The turbulent social temper additionally impacts the widow Marika, who loses her job in an Aryanised dressmaker’s store. Given the growing anti-Hungarian sentiment she shuts herself away, notably since she is harbouring a bit of Jewish boy. Regardless of this she nonetheless finds herself singled out by two males: a German Nazi officer and a captain of Slovakia’s Hlinka Guard. This drama by Slovak director Iveta Grófová is an adaptation of the novella of the identical identify by Peter Krištúfek, which conjures up the dramatic environment of wartime Slovakia. The story of a fragmented period, which forces the protagonists to confront complicated dilemmas, is instructed not solely by way of phrases, but in addition by the use of a strong visible language.
Mord / Our Pretty Pig SlaughterDirector: Adam MartinecCzech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2024, 84 min, World premiere
The pig-killing fest on an previous farm is a practice Karel seems to be ahead to yearly. It’s the one probability for the entire household to get collectively, have a very good time, interact in a squabble or two, and luxuriate in some nice meals. However this time issues are completely different. The butcher hides the actual fact his cartridges are damp, grampa can’t deliver himself to inform Karel, just lately widowed, that this slaughter might be their final, daughter Lucie is depressed after her marital breakup, and grandson Dušík runs away whereas his mother and father argue over whether or not he’s sufficiently old to look at the kill. As for Karel, the pig’s blood spilling all over the place is the final straw… Adam Martinec’s characteristic debut is a remarkably incisive research of the Czech temperament which, by way of its visceral character portrayal and searing humour, evokes the masterworks of the Czechoslovak New Wave.
Panoptikoni / PanopticonDirector: George SikharulidzeGeorgia, France, Italy, Romania, 2024, 95 min, World premiere
When Sandro’s father decides to commit his life to God and leaves for a monastery, the teenage introvert finds himself disadvantaged of the basic certainties of life. Deserted by his father and his mom, who’s working overseas, the younger man embarks on a journey of self-discovery, opening up each to a brand new friendship with the novel Lasha, who has ties with an ultra-right organisation, and likewise to the possibility to discover his personal sexuality. George Sikharulidze’s perceptive characteristic debut considers how advantageous the road is between the observer and the noticed, and asks the place up to date post-Soviet Georgian society is heading because it hovers on the border between spiritual conservatism and nationalisation on the one hand, and the need for independence and modernisation on the opposite.
Proslava / CelebrationDirector: Bruno AnkovićCroatia, Qatar, 2024, 86 min, World premiere
Bruno Anković’s characteristic movie debut is about in an impoverished Croatian village between the years 1926 and 1945. The fixed deprivation, repeated modifications to the regime, and warfare pervaded the forests and shrouded the place in a miasma that obscured all visions of a greater future. Village life was additionally powerful for Mijo: His younger, harmless soul was burdened by the surface world and troubled by inhumane orders, and he then fell prey to the false sheen of right-wing ideology. This movie adaptation of the profitable novel of the identical identify by Damir Karakaš presents us with fantastic pictures of the agricultural panorama, however it is usually a sworn statement of commonplace brutality and demonstrates the the reason why harmless folks grow to be straightforward quarry for ideological crusaders.
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper ThingsDirector: Mark CousinsUnited Kingdom, 2024, 88 min, World premiere
One of the crucial necessary girls in British fashionable artwork, the painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a extremely inspirational determine, whose work was deeply impacted by a pivotal occasion in her life. In Might 1949, this main consultant of the modernist St Ives group of artists climbed to the highest of the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland, an expertise which was to rework the best way she noticed the world. She spent the remainder of her life capturing its shapes and colors, certainly its very essence. In his essayistic portrait documentarist Mark Cousins delves into complicated themes of gender, local weather change and creativity, whereas laying naked the artist’s character and huge creativeness so pervasively that he creates the impression we’re seeing the world by way of her eyes.
Světýlka / Tiny LightsDirector: Beata ParkanováCzech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2024, 74 min, World premiere
Amálka is six years previous. She loves her cat, her mother and father, and her gran and grampa. It’s summertime and all of the little lady might want for is for the day to prove simply because it ought to. Besides that issues are completely different. Her mother and father have shut themselves in a room and she will hear raised voices by way of the door, which isn’t regular. One thing’s happening and Amálka has no concept what it’s. In a wonderfully inventive route from Beata Parkanová, Tiny Lights follows a household break-up as perceived by a baby: By means of the keyhole, ear pressed to the door, every part seen at grownup waist top.Every day has to finish, and this one has introduced Amálka to the purpose of no return. She feels the harm as she drifts off to sleep, however she has additionally grown up a bit of.
XoftexDirector: Noaz DesheGermany, France, 2024, 95 min, World premiere
Xoftex is a Greek refugee camp, the place Syrian and Palestinian asylum seekers anxiously look forward to information of their refugee standing. To move the time between interviews with the immigration workplace, Nasser and his mates movie satirical sketches and make preparations for a zombie horror flick. Besides that the fact of the camp could possibly be taken for a horror situation itself. The strain between its inhabitants beneficial properties momentum and each battle removes yet another brick from the wall which divides actuality from dream – or, certainly, nightmare. Fragments of actual life, humour, and the unimaginable struggling of individuals risking their lives to flee their very own nation, merge into an explosive, at occasions, surreal spectacle which invitations the viewers to immerse themselves within the story and the lives of immigrants in a means they may by no means have skilled earlier than.
Bezvetrije / WindlessDirector: Pavel G. VesnakovBulgaria, Italy, 2024, 93 min, World premiere
After years away Kaloyan returns to his native Bulgaria with the intention to promote his late father’s flat. What at first looks like a routine job devoid of emotion progressively develops right into a journey to the depths of his being, the place he’s confronted with distant traumas, but he additionally strikes a brand new path in direction of self-discovery. Whereas childhood is crammed with sensations and the rustling wind, maturity is a state of fragile windless and fading reminiscences of these closest to us. Vesnakov delivers vibrant existential reflections on the character of household bonds and private id over the course of time. But he additionally muses on modern-day Bulgaria, the place the cemeteries of its authentic inhabitants are being changed by shady casinos, and the place cultural reminiscence is waning in a rustic deceived by an illusory imaginative and prescient of financial prosperity.
Cabo Negro Director: Abdellah TaïaFrance, Morocco, 2024, 76 min, World premiere
Two younger folks, Soundouss and Jaâfar, arrive at a luxurious villa within the resort of Cabo Negro rented by Jaâfar’s lover, who is meant to hitch them later. However one thing is flawed – he nonetheless hasn’t turned up, and so they can’t attain him on his cellphone. Left on their very own, they determine, regardless of their unsure monetary and private state of affairs, to take pleasure in their vacation as a lot as their minds and our bodies will enable. On trip, with time seemingly non-existent, they take the chance to replicate on their relationships again house – and on the long run, which feels so distant right here on the sun-drenched seashore. Author-director Abdellah Taïa presents a queer ode to the seemingly carefree time of youth.
Clorofilla / ChlorophyllDirector: Ivana GloriaItaly, 2023, 75 min, Worldwide premiere
Inexperienced-haired Maia is uninterested in metropolis life and, pushed by a want to be amongst nature, she decides to spend the summer time selecting oranges. Within the orchards she is greeted by the gardener, an eccentric loner referred to as Teo, who notices that Maia isn’t like everybody else. In the identical means he tends his vegetation, he devotes his time and vitality to her, too, and the younger girl begins to blossom. Their burgeoning friendship, nevertheless, is unsettled by the arrival of Teo’s father and older brother Arturo, who’re planning a celebration in a neighbouring village… In her richly colored story, which exhibits it’s typically troublesome to search out somebody who might assist us to find our true selves, director Ivana Gloria awakens inside us senses that we didn’t even know we had.
Fără suflet / The AlienatedDirector: Anja KreisGermany, Moldova, France, 2024, 95 min, World premiere
Varvara, a professor of philosophy, is discussing the idea of God’s loss of life together with her college students. She is visited by her sister Angelina, an eminent gynecologist who has been recalled from Moscow and despatched to a different metropolis, the place she is to scale back the variety of abortions. Not lengthy afterwards a woman involves see her on the hospital, asking her to carry out an abortion, claiming that she is carrying the Antichrist in her womb. After a heated dispute with a pupil, Varvara ponders the presence of evil in human nature, whereas Angelina carries out an unlawful abortion on the lady and takes the embryo house together with her… This mystical movie by Anja Kreis is beguiling for its ominous environment and raises uncomfortable questions on human conscience, morality and religion, though it declines to supply definitive solutions.
Hiçbir şey yerinde değil / Nothing in Its PlaceDirector: Burak ÇevikTurkey, Germany, South Korea, 2024, 76 min, Worldwide premiere
One night, one house, 5 leftist college students, and one imaginative and prescient of a non-violent socialist revolution. When this gathering is interrupted by the unannounced go to of two members of a right-wing motion, issues rapidly spiral uncontrolled. Turkish director Burak Çevik makes use of lengthy takes and an enclosed area as a canvas onto which his ensemble forged’s sturdy performances paint a narrative reflecting the turbulent political state of affairs in 1978 Ankara. How far are folks prepared to go for his or her political views, and the way a lot can the ideology of a gaggle affect the conduct of a person? Nothing in Its Place holds up a mirror to multiple revolution.
Ju wai ren / StrangerDirector: Zhengfan YangUSA, China, Netherlands, Norway, France, 2024, 113 min, World premiere
The resort room as a spot the place all people is a stranger. A spot that’s yours for only a second. A quickly intimate area entered by a maid with the intention to clear it whereas, if doable, not leaving a single hint of her go to. Every a part of the episodic Stranger is about in simply such a spot. One episode equals one shot. One shot equals one story. What they’ve in widespread is China, the house nation of each company and employees, though every of their lives differs from the others. The movie’s absurd, darkly humorous, poignant, and mysterious tales are set in a seemingly confined area that however opens up new and shocking dimensions with every episode.
LapilliDirector: Paula ĎurinováSlovak Republic, Germany, 2024, 65 min, World premiere
In her characteristic debut director Paula Ďurinová units out to wander amongst various rock formations with the intention to attempt to come to phrases with the lack of her grandparents. Totally different levels of grief unfold among the many sea currents, the darkish caves and the volcanic wasteland, whereas the strings of an autoharp resonate within the ravines. Lapilli finds a novel stability between the non-public and the environmental in a modernistic requiem filled with perceptive observations on pure phenomena and on man himself. It is a work that excels in its interior energy and uncommon movie language, the place sea waves replicate shifting ideas, and the place the erosion of arid soil is harking back to a damaged coronary heart crammed with reminiscences of people who find themselves misplaced to us eternally.
Od marca do mája / March to MayDirector: Martin Pavol RepkaCzech Republic, 2024, 85 min, World premiere
A household of 5 lives collectively in an previous village home. Whereas the mother and father are slowly ageing, the kids are rising up, and it’s clear that they may quickly go their very own means. This unchanging rhythm of on a regular basis life is disrupted by the surprising information of the mom’s being pregnant, and the thought of a brand new sibling progressively impacts all members of the family. March to Might is an understated, intimate portrait of household togetherness, which is usually expressed within the smallest of the way. An unassuming but extremely authentic story, filmed with the identical tenderness and endurance with which nature awakens each spring.
Second ChanceDirector: Subhadra MahajanIndia, 2024, 104 min, World premiere
Desolate after experiencing a traumatic incident, Mia travels to the household’s summer time retreat amid the snow-covered Himalayas with the intention to regain her energy. There she finds the corporate of the caretaker’s mother-in-law, Bimal, and her grandson, Sunny. No matter their differing ages, social background and their concepts of happiness, a surprisingly sturdy bond develops between them, which can’t be damaged, not even by the arrival of somebody who drives Mia straight again into her trauma. This visually mesmerising movie gives an genuine and vivid depiction of the method of dealing with feminine ache and demonstrates {that a} second probability would possibly emerge the place we least anticipate it.
Trans MemoriaDirector: Victoria VerseauSweden, France, 2024, 72 min, World premiere
“I collect. I document. I write down my memories. I’m afraid they’ll disappear.” That is how Victoria Verseau introduces her intimate documentary diary, by which she returns to Thailand and to the yr 2012, when she underwent her transition. She had lengthy awaited this second, however then got here emotions of uncertainty, amplified by the loss of life of an in depth buddy. The conceptual artist adopts an virtually archaeological method to the previous and lays naked the method of writing a private story that’s intrinsically linked to the creation of her personal id. On this deeply felt debut she reveals the joyful features and likewise the darkish recesses of transition and, bringing different testimonies into play as nicely, she critically examines what defines girls as girls.
Tropicana Director: Omer TobiIsrael, Canada, 2024, 82 min, World premiere
A lonely middle-aged girl lives her monotonous life. Each morning, she goes to her job as a grocery store cashier, and each day after work she goes straight house to take care of her ailing mom and the remainder of the household. No one, nevertheless, appears to care. Then, the mysterious homicide of her boss units off a series of occasions on the finish of which she could be free and discover her personal value. describe her journey? Maybe finest as a sexual odyssey, an exploratory expedition to locations the place an necessary position is performed by carnality, want, and its gratification. Tropicana is a subtly enigmatic reflection on conservatism, prudery, and the false superb of bodily magnificence.
Vino la noche / Evening Has ComeDirector: Paolo TizónPeru, Spain, Mexico, 2024, 96 min, World premiere
A gaggle of younger adventurers join one of the difficult army coaching programs in Latin America, which can flip them into fearsome warriors entrusted with overseeing the damaging VRAEM area, an space crammed with coca vegetation, terrorists, and smugglers. In his absorbing take a look at the hermetically sealed world of the military, debut director Paolo Tizon paints a portrait of 1 establishment whereas depicting particular person human tales and reflecting on male id, the potential for self-determination, and a fragile masculinity that stands in putting distinction to the brutal coaching. Sensitivity alongside violence, magnificence alongside vulnerability.
Architektura ČSSR 58–89 / Czechoslovak Structure 58–89 Director: Jan ZajíčekCzech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2024, 126 min, World premiere
Vladimír 518, uncompromising rapper, artist, stage designer and activist, is a uncommon phenomenon, who not solely writes books, however publishes them as nicely. Immediately additionally a revered authority totally on pre-1989 structure, he has written not solely a significant publication on the topic, but in addition the story for 2 audiovisual works treating the identical theme, which had been shot by Jan Zajíček, famend director of music movies. Along with the latest TV sequence we have now the eagerly anticipated characteristic movie which, by way of its fascinating and spectacular exploration of Czech and Slovak structure of the latter half of the twentieth century, gives unique perception into extraordinary buildings and distinctive people residing under the Tatra Mountains.
Within the Land of BrothersDirector: Alireza Ghasemi, Raha AmirfazliIran, France, Netherlands, 2024, 95 min, European premiere
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to an enormous flight of Afghans to neighboring Iran, which – since they hoped to discover a new house there – they referred to as the “Land of Brothers.” However the dream of fraternal coexistence quickly light, Iranian regulation by no means accepted them as equal residents, and so even the descendants of the primary refugees nonetheless carry the burden of otherness. Alireza Ghasemi and Raha Amirfazli’s wistful, fantastically shot characteristic debut a couple of household who won’t ever really feel at house within the nation the place they dwell gained over audiences instantly upon its premiere at Sundance.
Ještě nejsem, kým chci být / I’m Not Every little thing I Need to BeDirector: Klára TasovskáCzech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria, 2024, 90 min
This yr’s notional award for excellence on the home movie entrance ought to unquestionably go to the distinctive documentary on the internationally famend photographic legend Libuše Jarcovjáková, a piece which enchanted nearly everybody on the 2024 Berlinale. This exceptional challenge by Klára Tasovská and her workforce seems to be again over the previous fifty years on the lifetime of a real icon, often called the Czech Nan Goldin, and this by way of an interesting montage of a number of thousand of her pictures and her diary entries, which she reads out herself. Portraits, self-portraits, immortalised moments, the hunt for reality mendacity deep inside anonymous fellow opponents of grim Normalisation, reflections of the transformation of physique and soul, black-and-white photographs, emotion and life in flashes of good gentle.
Das Lied der Anderen – Eine Suche nach Europa / The Track of Others – A Seek for EuropeDirector: Vadim JendreykoSwitzerland, 2024, 136 min, Worldwide premiere
What’s Europe? In his extremely topical private essay, Vadim Jendreyko travels throughout the previous continent to find its essence in locations that may be referred to as acupuncture factors of European id. His varied stops embrace the underside of the Rhine, Greek docks, the European Parliament, a primeval forest in Poland, and a Sarajevo library. All of those locations invite ambivalent reflections: on the one hand, they rejoice Europe’s variety and the breadth of its cultural heritage; however, they’re symbols of turbulence, battle, and bloody historical past. Is Europe condemned to be caught in a vicious circle of violence, or is there hope in those that attempt to sing the songs of others?
RealDirector: Oleh SentsovUkraine, Croatia, 2024, 90 min, World premiere
Acclaimed filmmaker, activist, Sakharov Prize-winning former Kremlin prisoner, and soldier Oleh Sentsov is at the moment defending his homeland as a lieutenant within the Ukrainian military, which he joined within the first days of the Russian invasion in February 2022. Throughout one assault, his infantry preventing automobile was destroyed by enemy artillery. His makes an attempt to prepare the evacuation of a part of his unit had been difficult by the shortage of ammunition and constant Russian hearth. The identify of the operation was Actual, and Sentsov’s eponymous movie is a novel immersive expertise that provides a hyper-documentary perception into the fact of the warfare by way of the eyes of 1 direct participant.
Ta druhá / The Different OneDirector: Marie-Magdalena KochováCzech Republic, 2024, 85 min, World premiere
In her feature-length debut, Marie-Magazinedalena Kochová makes use of the character of eighteen-year-old Johanna to discover the phenomenon of “glass children” – kids who, as a result of they’ve a special-needs sibling, are uncared for by their household, nevertheless unintentionally. They usually really feel invisible, their issues are at all times thought of much less necessary, and they’re usually anticipated to assist maintain their disabled brother or sister. Johana is about to graduate from highschool, and so she should determine whether or not to depart house to check, or keep and assist her mother and father. An immensely delicate account of the character of sibling love which, for as soon as, places “the other one” first.
Tatabojs.docDirector: Marek NajbrtCzech Republic, 2024, 94 min, World premiere
“Foot Soldiers”, “Attention aux hommes”, “Dancer”, “Repetition”… These are simply a number of the string of hits by Prague band Tata Bojs. All the time energetic, able to myriad transformations, exact of their conceptual method to the visible and musical interpretation of particular person albums and concert events. It’s no shock that Marek Najbrt (Champions, Protector, Polski movie) determined to not go for the traditional documentary. He tells the band’s story as a playful collage, pieced collectively from a wealth of archive materials and recordings of concert events and futuristic stage performances with the Vosto5 theatre firm. Thus, unfolding earlier than our very eyes is a portrait of a extremely authentic band which, regardless of the choice nature of its output, has earned its rightful place among the many nation’s high gamers.
Vlny / WavesDirector: Jiří MádlCzech Republic, 2024, 131 min, World premiere
One would possibly assume that Czech and Slovak filmmakers have already mentioned all there may be to say in regards to the interval round 1968 in Czechoslovak historical past. As Jiří Mádl’s newest outing exhibits, nevertheless, this important period in our fashionable historical past nonetheless has forgotten tales to supply which are worthy of our consideration. The movie revolves across the worldwide information workplace at Czechoslovak Radio, a spot filled with gifted people possessing broad perception, linguistic abilities, and above all a dedication to trustworthy journalistic work with a give attention to the reality. An epic, dynamically shot, rewarding movie, which embraces unusual heroism within the face of an oppressive regime, the energy of fraternal ties, and the everlasting themes of affection, betrayal, morality, and hope.
Voyage au bord de la guerre / Journey to the Brink of WarDirector: Antonin PeretjatkoFrance, 2024, 62 min, Worldwide premiere
Throughout the first month of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, greater than 12.5 million folks had been pressured to flee their properties and 5 million fled the nation altogether. Documentary filmmaker Antonin Peretjatko returns to Lviv with Andrei, who has left together with his household for France, to retrieve Andrei’s private belongings and to discover his personal roots, however most significantly to report eyewitness testimony from individuals who have remained in Ukraine. Half reportage documentary and half poetic highway film with an aesthetic fashion harking back to the early French New Wave, Journey to the Brink of War tries to share with the viewer what on a regular basis life seems to be like in a war-torn nation.
Zahradníkův rok / The Gardener’s YearDirector: Jiří HavelkaCzech Republic, 2023, 104 min, World premiere
A real story of injustice perpetrated on a peaceable gardener by a rich neighbor meets Karel Čapek’s eponymous literary work a couple of gardener’s hardships and successes over the course of a yr. Director Jiří Havelka, one of the complicated inventive personalities of our time, has lengthy proved that “alternative” and “audience-friendly” needn’t be mutually unique. His quietly transferring tragicomic story a couple of remarkably cussed battle for the precise to a dignified life is constructed on two nice performances by the at all times excellent Oldřich Kaiser and Dáša Vokata.
