DIRECTOR
Petr Václav
DIRECTOR
Petr Václav
SCREENPLAY
Petr Václav
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Štěpán Kučera
EDITING
Florent Mangeot
SOUND
Daniel Němec
PRODUCER
Jan Macola
PRODUCTION
Mimesis Film
CO-PRODUCTION
Česká televize
Cinema Defacto
i/o post
A paranoid prison guard moves into a village flanked by a state motorway. He befriends his new neighbour, an unemployed hypochondriac supported by his wife, working in the local grocery. Weary of life and caring for her two sons, she develops an attraction to the nightclub bouncer, but he is in love with the club stripper, who is in turn waiting for the father of her child to return from the same prison where our prison guard works. A story about the demons of our day.
“Turning from the observational realism of his previous picture The Way Out, director Petr Václav here leans toward a more stylized drama, although one of his traditional themes remains: the characters’ desire to survive and give meaning to their lives. Once again, the strongest, most resolute characters are women, while men are the ones who blame everyone else for their problems except themselves.” – Jan Škoda, KVIFF
Berlin International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Cairo International Film Festival
Toronto Film Festival
Finále Plzeň
Berlin International Film Festival: Reader Jury of the Tagesspiegel
Cairo International Film Festival: Best Artistic Contribution
Czech Lion
Czech Film Critics Awards
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.
