Films 2018
BAREFOOT | Po strništi bos CZ / SK / DK 2017 | Drama/Comedy | 111 min
Czech Box Office
FESTIVALS: Dubai IFF, Palm Springs IFF
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Even in difficult times of war, it may be harder to show courage to your own family. The Oscar winning duo behind the 1997 winner 'Kolya', father and son Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák have made yet another nostalgic return to their characters from their previous Oscar nominated hit movie of 1991, The Elementary School.
Based on Zdenek’s autobiographical novel, and directed, written and produced by Jan, Barefoot describes the wonder of growing up through the eyes of an alert 8-year-old boy whose city family has been forced into rural exile during World War II. Quickly adapting to country life, Eda (luminously played by bright-eyed newcomer Alois Grec) transforms from a precious Prague city boy to a country lad complete with a new set of larrikin pals.
With time, unexpected family secrets begin to reveal themselves that little Eda will have to deal with.
SHORT FILM Wedding Day / Veselka CZ | 2017 | Animation 3:13 min
ENJOY A FREE BECHEROVKA COCKTAIL ON ARRIVAL
WED 16 MAY 6:30 PM
DIRECTOR Jan Svěrák
LANGUAGE Czech
English subtitles
AGE No restriction
CAST Tereza Voříšková
Alois Grec
Ondřej Vetchý
Jan Tříska
Oldřich Kaiser
Viera Pavlíková
Zuzana Stivínová
ANTHROPOID | Anthropoid CZ / UK/ FR 2016 | Thriller/War | 120 min
FESTIVALS: Karlovy Vary IFF, London BFI, Athens IFF
A mission that changed the face of Europe forever. Sean Ellis’ gripping war epic is based on the extraordinary true story of Operation Anthropoid, the World War II mission to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich.
It’s a historical thriller about the efforts of a handful of Czechs to kill the murderous Nazi overlord of their country.
The Reich's 3rd in command after Hitler and Himmler, Heydrich was the main architect of the Final Solution and the leader of occupying Nazi forces in Bohemia and Moravia Protectorate. His reign of terror prompted self-exiled Czech and Slovak soldiers (played by Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan) to hatch one of the most daring WWII top-secret missions.
Ellis mulled over the idea for a movie adaptation of this top-secret operation for 15 years, during which time he sifted through masses of available material. He knew he wanted to gain insight into the way soldiers Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš felt vis-à-vis an act whose consequences for themselves would most certainly be fatal.
SHORT FILM Mimi & Lisa / Mimi a Líza SK | 2016 | Animation 1:38 min
THU 17 MAY 6:30 PM
DIRECTOR Sean Ellis LANGUAGE Czech/English/German
English/Czech subtitles
AGE 15+ or accompanied by an adult
CAST Cillian Murphy
Jamie Dornan
Charlotte Le Bon
Toby Jones
Anna Geislerová
ALL OR NOTHING | Všetko alebo nič SK / CZ / PL 2017| Comedy | 107 min
Box Office Hit
Are you single and looking for the right person? Finding one is never easy....
A witty take on a well-oiled life of 3 single friends whose world is unexpectedly turned upside down. Linda is a 30-year-old single mum. Vanda is a 30-year-old independent, free spirited beauty. Edo is an introverted, shy and sensitive gay. They all run a small bookshop together and share their ups and downs. Their single lifestyle is shaken up when three gentlemen appear.
Linda meets a charismatic developer, Vanda is charmed by a university professor and Edo is picked up by a vegetarian hipster. But is their romance going to last?
SHORT FILM 39 Weeks, 6 days / 39 Weeks, 6 days SK | 2017 | Animation 7:50 min
FRI 18 MAY 6:30 PM
DIRECTOR Marta Ferencová
LANGUAGE Slovak
English subtitles
AGE 15+ or accompanied by an adult
CAST Táňa Pauhofová Klára Issová
Michal Žebrovski
Pawel Delag
Ondřej Sokol
Petr Vaněk
OUT | Out SK / HU / CZ / LV / EE 2017 | Drama/Comedy | 88 min
FESTIVALS: Cannes, Thessaloniki IFF, Copenhagen,
Zurich, Cleveland IFF, Trieste
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
“When one door closes, another opens“.
That´s what 50-year-old Ágoston thought when he got sacked from his lifelong job at a power plant of a small Slovak village. Leaving behind his family he sets off north to the Baltics, to Latvia where he wants to find his dream job as a welder in a shipyard and to catch a big sea fish.
Instead of warm welcome, Ágoston is faced with another ‘gritty‘ reality altogether. His journey pulls him deeper and deeper into a swell of strange encounters and absurd events.
SHORT FILM The Truck / Kamion CZ | 2017 | Fiction 9:00 min
FRI 18 MAY 9:00 PM
DIRECTOR Győrgy Kristóf LANGUAGE Slovak/Hungarian/Polish/Latvian/Russian
English subtitles
AGE 15+ or accompanied by an adult
CAST Sándor Terhes
Eva Bandor
Judit Bárdos
Guna Zarina
Victor Nemets
Attila Bocsárszky
ODDSOCKEATERS | Lichožrouti CZ/SK/HR 2016
Animation/Adventure/Fantasy/Family|83 min
FESTIVALS: Karlovy Vary IFF, Anima Mundi AFF, Lisbon Animation FF,
Bucheon International FFI
Film Awards: 2 Czech Lions for Best sound & Best Stage Design
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
What´s happening with your socks when they’re getting laundered? Find out the ugly truth.
Have you ever wondered why there is always one sock left from a pair after doing a laundry?
“Never take the whole pair!” is the mantra of the Oddsockeaters, the creatures responsible for our socks just disappearing into thin air,
leaving us with a pile of odd ones.
Based on the bestselling book series, this animated-cum-gangster movie set in modern day Prague draws on the tradition of Czech
films for children and adults alike.
This truly delightful feature is a must see for children and the young at heart.
SHORT FILM The House / Domek CZ | 2016 | 5 min
Happy Go Ducky are proud sponsors of this screening - 3 lucky children will each receive a beautiful handmade toy
SAT 19 MAY 1:30 PM
DIRECTOR Galina Miklínová LANGUAGE English
AGE No restriction
CAST Kryštof Hádek Jan Maxián
David Novotný
Ondřej Trojan
Tatiana Vilehlmová
LARKS ON A STRING | Skřivánci na niti CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1969/1990
Comedy/Drama | 90 min
Film Awards: Berlin IFF Golden Bear Winner 1990, Pilsen FF Winner
FESTIVALS: Berlin IFF 1990, Locarno FF 1990, Pilsen FF 1990
A cinematographic gem that had been banned from screening for 20 years. Winner of the 1990 Berlin International Film Festival.
A comedy drama based on the novel by the acclaimed author Bohumil Hrabal is set in the repressive 1950s, a period when many Czechoslovaks were politically persecuted by the Communist dictatorship.
The plot evolves around various outcasts – intellectuals, religious people and other dissidents that opposed the regime. They are all forced to work in a junkyard in order to be ‘re-educated’. Included in this group of odd characters are female prisoners who are forced to work in the yard as part of their one-year sentence for trying to defect from the country.
However miserable the place is, the characters try to maintain their dignity and never give up on love and life.
SHORT FILM Strawberry Days /Jahodové dni SK | 2016 | Animation 14 min
SAT 19 MAY 4:00 PM
DIRECTOR Jiří Menzel LANGUAGE Czech
AGE 15+ or accompanied by an adult
English Subtitles
CAST Rudolf Hrušínský
Václav Neckář
Jitka Zelenohorská
Vlastimil Brodský
Naďa Urbánková
Jaroslav Satoranský
Jiřina Štěpničková
PRESIDENT BLANIK | Prezident Blaník Czech Republic 2018
Comedy/Satire | 95 min
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
One presidential candidate‘s vision of how to save country from itself – sell it!
President Blanik is a political parody based on the popular satirical web series Office Blanik / Kancelář Blaník.
The film is about lobbyist Tonda Blaník's candidacy in the 2018 presidential election mirroring to an extent the real events in recent elections. Tonda discovers that based on one interpretation of the constitution, he would be able to sell the Czech Republic if he were President. He decides to sell the country to China and announces his candidacy for the 2018 presidential
elections.
He promises voters corruption available to everybody and lithium for every family. But being a ‘true’ politician what he promises it’s not always what will happen.
SHORT FILM The Little One / Malá CZ | 2017 | Animation 10 min
SAT 19 MAY 7:00 PM
DIRECTOR Marek Najbrt LANGUAGE Czech
English Subtitles
AGE 15+ or accompanied by an adult
CAST Tomáš Sedláček
Marek Daniel
Michal Dalecký
Halka Třešňáková
Jakub Železný
Jan Potměšil
FORGET MOZART | Zabudnite na Mozarta SLOVAKIA | GERMANY 1985
Drama/Mystery/Suspense | 95 Min
FESTIVALS: Chicago IFF 1985, Venice FF 1985
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
An intriguing mystery of the great composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart death. Forman’s Amadeus only speculated on the probable causes of the spiritual and actual death of the 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The Slovak-German Forget Mozart, goes several steps further.
When Mozart (Max Tidorf) is found dead at the age of 35 in the dead of night, Austrian police investigator Count Pergen (Armin Mueller-Stahl)) is the man expected to get to the bottom of the musical genius' demise. Unsure exactly how the composer met his end and contemplating foul Play as a possibility, Pergen gathers Mozart's wife and several people who knew him intimately. His questioning of each reveals titbits from the great man's past.
As events unfold however, it is clear that "guilt" is a relative term and the conclusion of his investigation is at once definitive and opaque.
SHORT FILM Night in a Hotel: Room No. 306 / Noc v hoteli SK | 2014 | Fiction 7 min
SUN 20 MAY 1:30 PM
DIRECTOR Miloslav Luther LANGUAGE Slovak/German
English Subtitles
AGE 15+ or accompanied by an adult
CAST Andrej Hryc
Max Tidorf
Armin Mueller-Stahl
Delia Catarina Raacke
Ladislav Chudík
Wolfgang Preiss
OKHWAN’S MISSION IMPOSSIBLE | Okhwan, na cestě za slobodou
SLOVAKIA | UK 2016 | Documentary/Adventure/Sport | 71 min
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
This 2016 documentary tells the Don Quijote-like story of Okhwan Yoon, a law graduate and a successful businessman, a dreamer who gave up his career and set off on a bike trip around the world with one simple purpose - to draw attention to the absurd division of his homeland into South and North Korea.
His entire life in one small backpack, Okhwan spent more than 10 years on his bicycle, crossed 192 countries and clocked 10,000 kilometres.
Director Marek Mackovič project became famous even before the documentary was finished. The shots he made with Okhwan in July 2010 in Nepal were used by directors Kevin Macdonald (awarded with an Oscar) and Loressa Clisby in their project Life in a Day, streamed during the prestigious 2011 Sundance festival.
SHORT FILM Awaker / Prebúdzač CZ | 2017 | Animation 9:30 min
SUN 20 MAY 4:00 PM
DIRECTOR Marek Mackovič LANGUAGE English/Slovak
English Subtitles
AGE 15+ or accompanied by an adult
CAST Okhwan Soon
BACKSTAGE / Backstage SLOVAKIA/CZECH REPUBLIC 2018
Drama/Music/Dance | 90 min
FESTIVALS: Zlin IFF
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
LIVE YOUR LIFE!
Hip hop, street dance and urban culture mashup...feel the rhythm of backstage!
A thrilling dance movie full of energy, dance, passion and music. Film about young people for young people.
A talented dance group from a small Slovak town strives for a breakthrough in showbusiness. But once they enter this crazy world and take part in a TV dance competition, their friendship, loves and outlook on life are changed.
Backstage is a contemporary story about passion for dance, the power of friendship, dreaming big and the sacrifices you have to make to achieveyour goals.
SHORT FILM Tots / Drobci SK | 2016 | Animation 8:00 min
Q&A WITH FILM PRODUCER SILVIA PANÁKOVÁ
Following the screening of the Backstage
SUN 20 MAY 7:00 PM
DIRECTOR Andrea Sedláčková LANGUAGE Slovak/Czech
English Subtitles
AGE 15+ or accompanied by an adult
CAST Ben Cristovao Mária Havranová
Tony Porucha
The Pastels
Ondrej Hraška
Judit Bárdos
Roman Luknár