A Town Called Hermitage

Colour, DIGIBETA
Czech Republic, 2007, 74 min
Section: Documentary Films - Out of Competition

Synopsis

Rising above an entertaining mosaic of the lives of several inhabitants of the “uprooted” village of Dolní Poustevna on the Šluknov promontory – the Vietnamese girl Denisa, a group of retarded inmates from the local welfare institute or the German brothel-hunting tourist Volker – is the all-pervading shadow of the resettlement forced upon the German population after the war.

About the director

Ondřej Provazník (b. 1978, Prague) studied journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, (FSV UK) in Prague and is now studying screenwriting and programming at FAMU. He wrote for the culture section of the daily Lidové Noviny, as a director he contributes to Czech Television’s multicultural programme Kosmopolis, and as programme adviser and screenwriter he was involved in Prima TV’s series Airport (Letiště). He completed his journalism course with the documentary Professional Soldier (Profesionální voják, 2000), an ironic portrait of a young man who tries unsuccessfully to get into the army. In 2007 he made the short feature film Not Today (Dneska ne), an essentially plotless chronicle of one day and one character. He is currently completing his studies at FAMU.

Martin Dušek (b. 1978) comes from northern Bohemia, he studied television journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, (FSV UK) in Prague and documentary film at FAMU. He made television reports and documentaries for Czech Television’s multicultural broadcasts in which he chiefly focused on the former Sudeten environment. He concluded his journalism studies with the short documentary Blast (Odstřel, 2002), an untraditional love story about an aging labourer and a giant walking excavator. At FAMU he made the documentary Letter of Invitation (Zvací dopis, 2004) about the uproar generated in a remote little town by the discovery that the ancestor of the candidate for the American presidency was born here. Dušek, is currently making television comedies and children’s programmes.