Czech Films In Spotlight

BEAUTY IN TROUBLE

Friday, March 23----Four films from the Czech Republic are being spotlighted at this year's Bermuda International Film Festival. Few countries have a cinematic history as rich as the Czech Republic, which has maintained a consistent output of films stretching from the silent era to today,” says BIFF deputy director Duncan Hall. “The Czech New Wave era of the 1960s was the high point – two films from then-Czechoslovakia won the Best Foreign Film Oscar between 1965 and 1968. Some observers are calling the current Czech filmmaking scene the New New Wave.” The films included in the Czech Cinema Sidebar include:  

SOMETHING LIKE HAPPINESS

Director Bohdan Slama, whose acclaimed feature WILD BEES won the Best Feature Award at BIFF 2002, returns with SOMETHING LIKE HAPPINESS, which won seven Czech Lions at the national film awards in the Czech Republic, taking top honours for best film, director, actor, actress, supporting actress, cinematography and screenplay. It has also won festival awards at Athens, Cottbus and San Sebastian. The film tells the interlacing stories of three friends who live in a housing project in a small town.

BEAUTY IN TROUBLE

Director Jan Hrebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky touch upon complex inter-personal relationships in modern Czech society in this love story about an ordinary young woman, Marcela, who must choose between two men: her undeserving but beloved husband and an affable, wealthy, elderly foreigner. This elegant film won a Special Jury Prize at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival as well as Best International Feature at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and Best Feature at the Starz Denver Film Festival.  

RAIL YARD BLUES

One of the most original Czech debuts in recent years, RAIL YARD BLUES is a lightly absurd tragicomedy that takes place at a small Czech railway station over one July week and follows the personal and professional relationships between the railway employees.

HOLIDAY MAKERS  

Jiri Vejdelek’s comedy is based on a novel by the contemporary Czech writer, Michal Viewegh. Ostensibly about a trip to the Adriatic seaside by a motley crew of vacationers, the film develops as a series of comic incidents and absurd situations, revealing more about everyone than just their swimwear. Friendships, surprise meetings, summer romances and wild holiday passion are all on the menu in a story full of humour and gentle irony, which won two prizes at the Tribeca Film Festival – one for Best Ensemble Cast and another for actress Eva Holubova.

Sandy Mandelberger, Bermuda FF Online Dailies Editor