Bolero

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2004, 100 min
Section: Czech Films

About the film

A psychological criminal film set in contemporary Prague, freely inspired by a real event in the 1980s. A handful of young men belonging to the “golden youth” amuse themselves by abducting girls whom they force to have group sex. They rely on the victims being too scared to say anything. They assume the same when they carry medical student Marika off to a cottage and rape her. But she doesn’t intend to keep quiet about her humiliation, and when she threatens to denounce them, they have to kill her. The chief perpetrators of the crime intimidate the witnesses; they stop going around together and completely change their identity. It is some years before the police get on to the right track; the main culprits have married, started families and become respectable citizens. Their parents therefore do everything possible for their guilt not to come out – with utter cynicism and no regard to the victims, motivated only by a desire to save their reputations.
The director and cameraman F.A. Brabec builds the atmosphere of the story by tense but sensitive camera work with effectively composed pictures (the leitmotiv of dance scenes, dramatic retro-scenes). The dramatic quality is underlined by the powerfully emotional music of Jan Jirásek. The film deals with many topical themes, from cynicism and corruption to the complexity of interpersonal relationships, and makes an appeal to the renaissance of conscience, compassion and humaneness.

About the director

F. A. Brabec (1954, Prague) is a graduate of Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU, 1975-81). He worked for ten years at Barrandov Studios, gradually working his way up to independent cameraman. He made his debut as independent cameraman with Time of the Servants (1989). His work with director Jan Svěrák was especially important: Elementary School (1992), Accumulator 1 (1994) and The Ride (1994 – Czech Lion for Best Camera Work). He made his debut as a director with a transcription of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu roi (Czech Lions for Best Camera, Visual Concept and Music). He won more Czech Lions for his unconventional adaptation of Erben’s collection of poetry Wild Flowers (himself for camera, others for music, sound and poster). He returned to the stylised interpretation of a classic text with his experimental Rat Catcher, which was filmed in twenty-four hours during New Year’s Eve 2002 and New Year’s Day 2003 in the historic centre of Prague. As well as feature films he has made a number of commercials and music videos ("Ave Maria" for Lucie Bílá, for example, won a Czech Grammy Award in 1996). The criminal film Bolero is his latest film.