Wild Bees

Colour, 35mm
Czech Republic, 2001, 94 min
Section: Czech Films

Synopsis

After the war, this former Sudetenland region was filled with a wide variety of people of all backgrounds from all over Czechoslovakia. Today they are linked through unemployment, poverty and a lack of confidence in their own abilities. But their rough sense of humour helps them get the most out of life in spite of the lousy cards fate has dealt. An 18-year-old forest worker named Kája is, according to writer-director Bohdan Sláma, “an inconceivably pure spirit dwelling in some kind of impenetrable isolation from the world. He is completely defenceless and is at the mercy of the cruellest of embarrassments.” Kája pines for Božka, a salesgirl at the local grocery kiosk. She is ever more aware of the emptiness of her existence, the same which fills her mother’s life. She is also lonely – and not only with respect to her boyfriend Laďa, a local dreamboat who worships Michael Jackson. Then Kája’s older brother, Petr, comes from Prague for an unexpected visit, and hidden relationships and motives begin to surface. The fireman’s ball is coming soon, one of the few opportunities they have for a bit of a change....

About the director

Bohdan Sláma (b. 1967, Opava, Czechoslovakia) graduated from Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU) in 1997. In 1996 he shot White Acacias, his 60-minute graduation film, which was released in cinemas. His feature-film debut, Wild Bees (2001) took Tiger at this year’s festival in Rotterdam, and the Czech Lion for Best Supporting Actress went to Zuzana Kronerová. The film also received the Kodak Vision Prize at the Plzeň Finale for Best Czech Debut and was awarded by the Czech Association of Film Clubs. At the San Francisco IFF in May 2002 the movie won the SKYY Best Debut. Bohdan Sláma also worked on Radhošť (2002, with Pavel Göbl and Tomáš Dobruška).