Dirty Soul

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2004, 99 min
Section: Czech Films 2004-2005
Oficiální stránky: www.dusejakokaviar.cz

Synopsis

This biting comedy from experienced director Milan Cieslar explores several characters connected by blood, romance or marriage. Vladimír is stepbrother to Jana and Anna but they only find out about his existence at their father’s funeral. Not even the gals’ aging mother suspected that her husband sired another descendant after their divorce. Now an adult, Vladimír would gladly return to the wife and daughter he has abandoned. For her part, Jana longs to work out marital troubles with a husband who is cheating on her with her best friend Karin. And plump Anna is tortured every time she looks into her merciless mirror. Break-ups, encounters and fateful coincidences intermingle and layer the characters’ stories. Taken all together, they compose a bittersweet mosaic of the protagonists’ emotional lives — lonely people trying to find their place in the hectic modern world.

About the director

Milan Cieslar (b. 1960, Český Těšín) graduated in production from a technical high school and in direction from Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU). In 1986 he took work at Barrandov Film Studios as an assistant director working with e.g. Věra Chytilová. He has also worked in television (successful made-for-TV movies and productions: Hands, 1986; Markéta’s Menagerie, 1998; Black Tears, 2002; The Star of Life, 2002 and King Ječmínek, 2003). In 1993 he founded the production company Happy Celluloid. Filmography: an adventure film behind the scenes at the horse races, Dynamite (1989); a psychological story of a man who hasn’t forgotten the ideals of the sixties, Looking for Lennon (1991); the psychological crime drama A Taste of Death (1995); the drama of a young woman who becomes a victim of Nazi experimentation, Spring of Life (2000); Dirty Soul (2004); the psychological tale Bonds of Blood (2005).