DIRECTOR
Petr Václav
DIRECTOR
Petr Václav
SCREENPLAY
Petr Václav
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Štěpán Kučera
Petr Václav
Priscila Guedes
EDITING
Florent Mangeot
PRODUCER
Jan Macola
PRODUCTION
Mimesis Film
CO-PRODUCER
Tom Dercourt
Sophie Erbs
Jordi Niubo
Skokan, 28 years-old man, finished his stay in prison. He is given the clothes in which he was arrested few years earlier. Outside, in front of the wall decorated with barbed wire, the street is empty. Nobody expects him. In the city where he lands, he has nowhere to go. No house. No work. His family does not want him. Overnight, he decides to leave everything in order to launch his star career, and heads for the Cannes Film Festival.
Director Petr Václav calls Skokan a documentary film with fairy-tale aspects, mainly because of its emphasis on authenticity in telling the fictional tale of a Romani recidivist in search of career opportunities at the Cannes film festival. The main character is played a by real ex-con, Julius Oračko, whom the filmmakers got out of prison on parole shortly before the start of filming. The film was shot with just a rough script, which was fine-tuned on the set. The scenes from Cannes were shot during the festival. The ending, which recalls the liberation of an enchanted princess, again feels like a fairy tale.
Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Cairo International Film Festival
São Paulo International Film Festival
Petr Václav (1967, Prague) is considered one of the most talented filmmakers of Czech post-revolutionary cinema. He graduated from FAMU and made his debut in 1996 with Marian (1996), which won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno IFF. His films Parallel Worlds (2001) and The Way Out (2014) premiered in San Sebastian (New Directors Competition) and in the ACID section of Cannes, respectively. The Way Out won seven Czech Lions in 2014, including the Best Film Award, and four Czech Film Critics' Awards. The drama We Are Never Alone (2016) was screened in the Forum section at the Berlinale and at the Toronto IFF. In 2015, he made the documentary Confessions of a Disappeared about a performance of Josef Mysliveček's opera Olimpiade. This then served as the inspiration for a narrative historical film about the composer's life, which had its world premiere in competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
