Reminiscences

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2006, 62 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Documentary Films - Out of Competition

Synopsis

Are Czechs happy? What are their ideals? What are their values? And their relationships? Are they interested in politics? These and similar questions were posed by director Ivan Vojnár as he approached passers-by and selected individuals in Prague in March 2006. The result is a highly concentrated and, in places, perhaps surprising report on the state of contemporary Czech society.

About the director

Ivan Vojnár (b. 1942, Žilina) is one of the Czech Republic’s most fascinating cameramen and documentary filmmakers, yet he has also been hailed for his feature films. He studied photography at Prague’s FAMU and established himself as a close colleague of a number of important documentarists. In 1988 he filmed a documentary portrait of mime-artist Bolek Polívka entitled Dream about Pierrot (Sen o Pierotovi). Other documentaries he directed include Fear (Strach, 1989), Landscape with Fire (Krajina s ohněm, 1992), Insomnia (Nespavost, 1993) and Actors (Herci, 1996). His essay about patients at a psychiatric hospital In the Garden (V zahradě) won him the main prize in the documentary category at the KV IFF in 1995. In 1997 he debuted with his feature-film parable The Way through the Bleak Woods (Cesta pustým lesem). His medium-length film Prophets and Poets. Chapters from a Calendar (Proroci a básníci. Kapitoly z kalendáře, 2000) represented a new direction in his documentary work. He continues to seek truth and reality in Forest Walkers (Lesní chodci), a film hovering on the border between feature and documentary film.