Foxes

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Ireland, 2009, 83 min
Section: Czech Films 2009-2010

About the film

23-year-old Alžběta works in Dublin as an au pair and desperately longs to create a new home for herself far away from her native Slovakia. She feels it isn’t possible without a man, but in contrast to her older sister Tina, she is unable to find anyone. Tina tries to help her emotionally unstable sister, but Alžběta just becomes more and more jealous of Tina’s relationship with Irish boyfriend Steve. An unfortunate incident that happened long ago both divides and connects the sisters. In order for Alžběta to start living life on her own, the young women must stand up to the past together.... Mira Fornay’s directorial debut is a drama about sisterly envy and dependence, but it is also about redemption and forgiveness. Reflecting on the foxes within us, the title of the film isn’t merely a metaphor for the situation of foreign women in a foreign land, covertly exposed to extreme pressures. Having come in search of food, foxes actually live in Dublin where they have assimilated, but the other inhabitants of the town still think of them as intruders. This drama screened at the Venice IFF in the competitive International Film Critics’ Week section.

About the director

Mira Fornay (b. 1977, Bratislava) graduated in direction from Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU) with the movie Small Untold Secrets (Malá nesdělení, 2002), which was presented at numerous international festivals (e.g. Premiers Plans in Angers and the IFFs in Rotterdam, Telluride, New York, Kiev, and Tehran). She continued her studies at Britain’s National Film and Television School (NFTS) in Beaconsfield. In 2005 she was selected to participate in a workshop organized by top Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami. Before moving on to her feature debut Foxes (2009), she shot several prize-winning shorts, including Origami (1998, Best Short Film at the Cottbus IFF, Main Prize at Art Film in Trenčianské Teplice), Ex-pozice (2000), and her graduation work Alžbeta (2004, BIF in Bristol, London IFF).