Dolls

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2007, 99 min
Section: Czech Films 2007-2008

Synopsis

“A girls’ holiday road movie which breaks the taboo” – this was the tagline adopted for the distribution of director Karin Babinská’s debut, which won Best Film at the Czech film festival Finále Plzeň 2007. Iška, Karolína and Vendula are all eighteen and they’ve just left school. They don’t want to give up the blithe existence of their schooldays, nor their friendships, so they plan a short trip to Holland where they’ll be working on a farm. They certainly aren’t pleased when Iška’s younger brother Vojta decides to tag along, who ultimately becomes a witness and also catalyst in the breakdown of their relationship. The girls realise that time cannot be stopped. Dolls is essentially a “coming-out” story: not only in the sense of coming to terms with one’s sexual orientation, as in the case of one of the girls, but also on a more general level. It’s a label for what is often a painful process of uncovering the most profound truth, reconciling oneself with it and finding the strength to start living according to it. This may mean accepting the necessary seclusion in order to find one’s own identity.

About the director

Karin Babinská (b. 1974, Hodonín) studied film and television direction at Prague’s FAMU (1993-1999). During her studies she made several short films, one of which, Jakub and Veronika (1996) won numerous awards at international film festivals. She then made the short film Tender Yearnings (Křehké touhy, 1997) and in her fifth year at FAMU she directed three short stories on the theme When You’re Older (Až budeš starší) for the Czech Television series Bachelors (1999). She also creates TV commercial spots. Dolls is her feature film debut.