The Karlovy Fluctuate Worldwide Movie Pageant (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 12 months’s official choice and numerous 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 presently defending his homeland as a lieutenant within the Ukrainian military, which he joined within the first days of the Russian invasion in February 2022,” the movie description supplied by the fest reads. “Throughout one assault, his infantry preventing car was destroyed by enemy artillery. His makes an attempt to prepare the evacuation of a part of his unit have been difficult by the shortage of ammunition and relentless Russian hearth. The identify of the operation was Actual, and Sentsov’s eponymous movie is a novel immersive expertise that gives a hyper-documentary perception into the fact of the battle via the eyes of 1 direct participant.”
Amongst this 12 months’s KVIFF competitors lineup are Iveta Grófová’s The Hungarian Dressmaker, which depicts the rise of nationalism in Slovakia within the 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 dropping its spark,” can even compete for the pageant’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 trendy painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, to Karlovy Fluctuate, 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 Fluctuate’s Proxima sidebar, which goals to place the highlight on daring works by younger filmmakers and famend auteurs alike. This 12 months, it consists of movies in regards to the resort room as a spot the place everyone 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 Fluctuate group seen a number of themes chopping throughout numerous films within the lineup. “Freshly revisionist takes on the esthetical canons of a interval movie. A balanced, caring but additionally provocative look [at] the destiny of a lady in … modern society … The fast affect of political occasions on the lifetime of a person human being anyplace on the earth. My colleagues and I found these themes working via our choice of movies,” highlighted KVIFF inventive director Karel Och.
He additionally touted a worldwide cinematic lineup with new works. “15 out of 32 movies featured within the official choice are debuts, and we couldn’t be extra excited they’re accompanied by the model new works of famend filmmakers of the likes of Mark Cousins, Oleh Sentsov, Noaz Deshe, Antonin Peretjatko, Beata Parkanova and Burak Cevik,” he mentioned.
Take a look at the complete KVIFF official choice with descriptions of the movies beneath.
Ai ni ranbou / Impolite to Love
Director: Yukihiro Morigaki
Japan, 2023, 105 min, World premiere
An unsettling drama a couple of marriage which is steadily dropping its spark. Momoko (Noriko Eguchi) leads a decent life as a housewife. She clothes elegantly and ensures that the condominium seems to be good, all the way down to the final element; she attends to her husband assiduously and goes to nice lengths to cook dinner him correct Japanese meals. Are these expressions of affection, or reasonably paranoia from the emotional chasm that has opened out between them? And when does devoted care change into 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 will to create one thing good develops into the urge to destroy.
Banzo
Director: Margarida Cardoso
Portugal, 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 suffering from a mysterious affliction known as banzo, also called slave nostalgia. These affected really feel an intense homesickness, fall into apathy, lose the power to stay, and finally die. Alonso slowly discovers that it’s not 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 last word check. Banzo can also be a reminder that there’s a couple of strategy to interpret the previous, and that behind each story is an individual telling the story.
Cì xīn qiè gŭ / Pierce
Director: Nelicia Low
Singapore, 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 good 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 cohesion and the illusions that we undertaking onto these near us.
Drie dagen vis / Three Days of Fish
Director: Peter Hoogendoorn
Netherlands, 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 beginning. He has his normal 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 manner again to at least one one other. Three Days of Fish, the second outing by Dutch filmmaker Peter Hoogendoorn, is a delicate 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 / Loveable
Director: Lilja Ingolfsdottir
Norway, 2024, 101 min, World premiere
Whereas Sigmund is all the time 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 compelled to confront her biggest fears. Whereas ostensibly a divorce drama, this debut by writer-director Lilja Ingolfsdottir however takes us additional, delivering a multilayered character examine 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 contemporary strategy to look at modern concepts of romance, equality inside the relationship, and the ability of womanhood.
Ema a smrtihlav / The Hungarian Dressmaker
Director: Iveta Grófová
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, 2024, 129 min, World premiere
It’s the 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, significantly since she is harbouring a little bit 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 advanced dilemmas, is advised not solely via phrases, but additionally by the use of a robust visible language.
Mord / Our Beautiful Pig Slaughter
Director: Adam Martinec
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2024, 84 min, World premiere
The pig-killing fest on an outdated farm is a convention Karel seems to be ahead to yearly. It’s the one likelihood for the entire household to get collectively, have a superb 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, 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 in all places is the final straw… Adam Martinec’s characteristic debut is a remarkably incisive examine of the Czech temperament which, via its visceral character portrayal and searing humour, evokes the masterworks of the Czechoslovak New Wave.
Panoptikoni / Panopticon
Director: George Sikharulidze
Georgia, France, Italy, Romania, 2024, 95 min, World premiere
When Sandro’s father decides to dedicate his life to God and leaves for a monastery, the teenage introvert finds himself disadvantaged of the elemental 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 unconventional Lasha, who has ties with an ultra-right organisation, and in addition to the possibility to discover his personal sexuality. George Sikharulidze’s perceptive characteristic debut considers how positive the road is between the observer and the noticed, and asks the place modern post-Soviet Georgian society is heading because it hovers on the border between non secular conservatism and nationalisation on the one hand, and the will for independence and modernisation on the opposite.
Proslava / Celebration
Director: Bruno Anković
Croatia, 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 battle 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 skin 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 an affidavit of commonplace brutality and demonstrates the explanation why harmless individuals change into simple quarry for ideological crusaders.
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Issues
Director: Mark Cousins
United Kingdom, 2024, 88 min, World premiere
Some of the essential ladies in British trendy 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 remodel the best way she noticed the world. She spent the remainder of her life capturing its shapes and hues, certainly its very essence. In his essayistic portrait documentarist Mark Cousins delves into advanced 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 via her eyes.
Světýlka / Tiny Lights
Director: Beata Parkanová
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2024, 74 min, World premiere
Amálka is six years outdated. She loves her cat, her mother and father, and her gran and grampa. It’s summertime and all of the little woman may 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 be able to hear raised voices via the door, which isn’t regular. One thing’s happening and Amálka has no concept what it’s. In a perfectly artistic path from Beata Parkanová, Tiny Lights follows a household break-up as perceived by a baby: Via the keyhole, ear pressed to the door, all the things seen at grownup waist peak.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 little bit.
Xoftex
Director: Noaz Deshe
Germany, France, 2024, 95 min, World premiere
Xoftex is a Greek refugee camp, the place Syrian and Palestinian asylum seekers anxiously anticipate information of their refugee standing. To move the time between interviews with the immigration workplace, Nasser and his buddies 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 one more 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 manner they are going to by no means have skilled earlier than.
Bezvetrije / Windless
Director: Pavel G. Vesnakov
Bulgaria, Italy, 2024, 93 min, World premiere
After years away Kaloyan returns to his native Bulgaria with a purpose to promote his late father’s flat. What at first looks as if a routine process 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 recollections 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 Taïa
France, Morocco, 2024, 76 min, World premiere
Two younger individuals, 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 fallacious – he nonetheless hasn’t turned up, they usually can’t attain him on his cellphone. Left on their very own, they resolve, regardless of their unsure monetary and private scenario, 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 dwelling – and on the long run, which feels so distant right here on the sun-drenched seaside. Author-director Abdellah Taïa presents a queer ode to the seemingly carefree time of youth.
Clorofilla / Chlorophyll
Director: Ivana Gloria
Italy, 2023, 75 min, Worldwide premiere
Inexperienced-haired Maia is bored with metropolis life and, pushed by a want to be amongst nature, she decides to spend the summer season choosing oranges. Within the orchards she is greeted by the gardener, an eccentric loner known as Teo, who notices that Maia isn’t like everybody else. In the identical manner 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 may 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 Alienated
Director: Anja Kreis
Germany, Moldova, France, 2024, 95 min, World premiere
Varvara, a professor of philosophy, is discussing the idea of God’s loss of life along 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 cut 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 scholar, Varvara ponders the presence of evil in human nature, whereas Angelina carries out an unlawful abortion on the woman and takes the embryo dwelling along 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 Place
Director: Burak Çevik
Turkey, Germany, South Korea, 2024, 76 min, Worldwide premiere
One night, one condominium, 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 house as a canvas onto which his ensemble forged’s sturdy performances paint a narrative reflecting the turbulent political scenario in 1978 Ankara. How far are individuals prepared to go for his or her political views, and the way a lot can the ideology of a bunch affect the conduct of a person? Nothing in Its Place holds up a mirror to a couple of revolution.
Ju wai ren / Stranger
Director: Zhengfan Yang
USA, China, Netherlands, Norway, France, 2024, 113 min, World premiere
The resort room as a spot the place everyone is a stranger. A spot that’s yours for only a second. A briefly intimate house entered by a maid with a purpose to clear it whereas, if attainable, 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 friends and workers, 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 house that however opens up new and stunning dimensions with every episode.
Lapilli
Director: Paula Ďurinová
Slovak Republic, Germany, 2024, 65 min, World premiere
In her characteristic debut director Paula Ďurinová units out to wander amongst different rock formations with a purpose to attempt to come to phrases with the lack of her grandparents. Completely 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 stuffed with perceptive observations on pure phenomena and on man himself. This can be a work that excels in its inside power and uncommon movie language, the place sea waves replicate shifting ideas, and the place the erosion of arid soil is paying homage to a damaged coronary heart crammed with recollections of people who find themselves misplaced to us ceaselessly.
Od marca do mája / March to Might
Director: Martin Pavol Repka
Czech Republic, 2024, 85 min, World premiere
A household of 5 lives collectively in an outdated village home. Whereas the mother and father are slowly getting old, the youngsters are rising up, and it’s clear that they are going to quickly go their very own manner. This unchanging rhythm of on a regular basis life is disrupted by the surprising information of the mom’s being pregnant, and the concept 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 Probability
Director: Subhadra Mahajan
India, 2024, 104 min, World premiere
Desolate after experiencing a traumatic incident, Mia travels to the household’s summer season retreat amid the snow-covered Himalayas with a purpose to regain her power. 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 likelihood may emerge the place we least anticipate it.
Trans Memoria
Director: Victoria Verseau
Sweden, France, 2024, 72 min, World premiere
“I acquire. I doc. I write down my recollections. 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 12 months 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 a detailed pal. The conceptual artist adopts an nearly archaeological strategy 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 points and in addition the darkish recesses of transition and, bringing different testimonies into play as properly, she critically examines what defines ladies as ladies.
Tropicana Director: Omer Tobi
Israel, 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 dwelling 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. The right way to describe her journey? Maybe finest as a sexual odyssey, an exploratory expedition to locations the place an essential function is performed by carnality, want, and its gratification. Tropicana is a subtly enigmatic reflection on conservatism, prudery, and the false supreme of bodily magnificence.
Vino la noche / Night time Has Come
Director: Paolo Tizón
Peru, Spain, Mexico, 2024, 96 min, World premiere
A gaggle of younger adventurers join one of the difficult army coaching programs in Latin America, which is able to 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 hanging distinction to the brutal coaching. Sensitivity alongside violence, magnificence alongside vulnerability.
Architektura ČSSR 58–89 / Czechoslovak Structure 58–89 Director: Jan Zajíček
Czech 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 properly. As we speak additionally a revered authority totally on pre-1989 structure, he has written not solely a significant publication on the topic, but additionally the story for 2 audiovisual works treating the identical theme, which have been shot by Jan Zajíček, famend director of music movies. Along with the current TV collection we now have the eagerly anticipated characteristic movie which, via 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 beneath the Tatra Mountains.
Within the Land of Brothers
Director: Alireza Ghasemi, Raha Amirfazli
Iran, 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 dwelling there – they known as the “Land of Brothers.” However the dream of fraternal coexistence quickly light, Iranian legislation 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, superbly shot characteristic debut a couple of household who won’t ever really feel at dwelling within the nation the place they stay received over audiences instantly upon its premiere at Sundance.
Ještě nejsem, kým chci být / I’m Not All the things I Need to Be
Director: Klára Tasovská
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria, 2024, 90 min
This 12 months’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 undertaking by Klára Tasovská and her group 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 a captivating 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 mild.
Das Lied der Anderen – Eine Suche nach Europa / The Tune of Others – A Seek for Europe
Director: Vadim Jendreyko
Switzerland, 2024, 136 min, Worldwide premiere
What’s Europe? In his extremely topical private essay, Vadim Jendreyko travels throughout the outdated continent to find its essence in locations that may be known as acupuncture factors of European id. His numerous stops embody 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; alternatively, 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?
Actual
Director: Oleh Sentsov
Ukraine, Croatia, 2024, 90 min, World premiere
Acclaimed filmmaker, activist, Sakharov Prize-winning former Kremlin prisoner, and soldier Oleh Sentsov is presently 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 car was destroyed by enemy artillery. His makes an attempt to prepare the evacuation of a part of his unit have been difficult by the shortage of ammunition and relentless Russian hearth. The identify of the operation was Actual, and Sentsov’s eponymous movie is a novel immersive expertise that gives a hyper-documentary perception into the fact of the battle via the eyes of 1 direct participant.
Ta druhá / The Different One
Director: Marie-Magdalena Kochová
Czech 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 kids” – kids who, as a result of they’ve a special-needs sibling, are uncared for by their household, nevertheless unintentionally. They typically really feel invisible, their issues are all the time thought of much less essential, and they’re typically anticipated to assist care for their disabled brother or sister. Johana is about to graduate from highschool, and so she should resolve whether or not to go away dwelling to review, 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 opposite one” first.
Tatabojs.doc
Director: Marek Najbrt
Czech Republic, 2024, 94 min, World premiere
“Foot Troopers”, “Consideration aux hommes”, “Dancer”, “Repetition”… These are simply a few of the string of hits by Prague band Tata Bojs. All the time energetic, able to myriad transformations, exact of their conceptual strategy to the visible and musical interpretation of particular person albums and live shows. 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 live shows 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 / Waves
Director: Jiří Mádl
Czech Republic, 2024, 131 min, World premiere
One may suppose that Czech and Slovak filmmakers have already mentioned all there’s to say in regards to the interval round 1968 in Czechoslovak historical past. As Jiří Mádl’s newest outing exhibits, nevertheless, this significant period in our trendy historical past nonetheless has forgotten tales to supply which might be worthy of our consideration. The movie revolves across the worldwide information workplace at Czechoslovak Radio, a spot stuffed with proficient people possessing broad perception, linguistic abilities, and above all a dedication to trustworthy journalistic work with a deal with the reality. An epic, dynamically shot, rewarding movie, which embraces unusual heroism within the face of an oppressive regime, the power of fraternal ties, and the everlasting themes of affection, betrayal, morality, and hope.
Voyage au bord de la guerre / Journey to the Brink of Conflict
Director: Antonin Peretjatko
France, 2024, 62 min, Worldwide premiere
Inside the first month of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, greater than 12.5 million individuals have been compelled to flee their properties and 5 million fled the nation altogether. Documentary filmmaker Antonin Peretjatko returns to Lviv with Andrei, who has left along with his household for France, to retrieve Andrei’s private belongings and to discover his personal roots, however most significantly to file eyewitness testimony from individuals who have remained in Ukraine. Half reportage documentary and half poetic street film with an aesthetic model paying homage to the early French New Wave, Journey to the Brink of Conflict 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 12 months
Director: Jiří Havelka
Czech 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 12 months. Director Jiří Havelka, one of the advanced inventive personalities of our time, has lengthy proved that “various” and “audience-friendly” needn’t be mutually unique. His quietly shifting tragicomic story a couple of remarkably cussed battle for the precise to a dignified life is constructed on two nice performances by the all the time excellent Oldřich Kaiser and Dáša Vokata.