Unknown Hour

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2009, 95 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Czech Films 2009-2010

Synopsis

Hynek Michánek wants to study medicine but fails his entrance exams five times. He starts a job as an orderly in a district hospital where one of the doctors on the examining board works as well. He feels no-one takes him seriously and he loathes the doctors, who treat him with disdain. When an old man begs him to end his pain and suffering by helping him to die, Hynek gives him a "liberating” injection. But now he has done it once, he finds he can’t stop. He continues killing other patients, even though he knows he can’t get away with it for long.... The story of a devoted, intelligent young man who wants to help people but is blinded by the power he has over human lives was inspired by the actual case of the "heparin murderer”, Petr Zelenka. In this, his third feature film, director Dan Svátek returns to stories inspired by real events, as represented by his successful drama The Damned (2002). He wrote the screenplay together with psychiatrist Miroslav Skačáni, based on the latter’s book Killing Out of Envy (Vraždy ze závisti).

About the director

Dan Svátek (b. 1975, Dačice, CR) graduated from Zlín’s Film School (VOŠF) with the award-winning TV film Owl River (Soví řeka, 1997). He was involved as a trainee in the filming of Brian De Palma’s action thriller Mission: Impossible. He contributed the segment "Twilight of Hope” ("Zatmění nadějí”) to the collection of film stories Beginning of the World (Začátek světa, 2000). He also published a book version of his feature debut, the drama The Damned (Zatracení, 2002, selected for competition at the Moscow IFF), inspired by the true story of Czech heroin smugglers. He has also filmed a fictional documentary about a Buddhist sect, Return of the Earth’s Balance (Návrat zemské rovnováhy, 2002), the documentary Thai Prisoners (Thajští vězni, 2003) and a feature made in English, Close to Heaven (Blízko nebe, 2005).