Little Girl Blue

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2007, 93 min
Section: Czech Films 2007-2008

Synopsis

Julie’s got it all. A well-behaved daughter, an attractive lover, work as a translator that she does for her own enjoyment since she is supported by her successful and nurturing husband. When furnishing her dream home, however, she comes to the realisation that there is something desperately lacking: a piano. She thus leaves the security of her daily routine – on a seemingly senseless pilgrimage with a painful balance lurking at its end, the stakes being both the past and the future of her real relationships and values. “For me this film is about looking for a certain zero point. In order for a person to start over again from zero – that is, with a clear head and a clean conscience - they first have to go back to zero,” says director Alice Nellis of Little Girl Blue, based on her own screenplay and produced by Oscar-winning director Jan Svěrák. This intimate and poetic story of one day and one seemingly perfect life won three Czech Lions – for Best Czech Film of last year from members of the Academy and Czech critics, and for Best Cinematography (Ramūnas Greičius).

About the director

Alice Nellis (b. 1971, České Budějovice) attended the Prague Conservatoire and read English and American Studies at Charles University’s Philosophical Faculty, and took screenwriting at FAMU, where she has been teaching since 2002. She has worked as a translator, collaborated with various music groups and filmed several documentary films. She debuted in 2000 with the tragicomedy Eeny Meeny (Ene bene), which won a number of awards internationally (among others, the main prize at the International Film Festival in San Francisco). Her second film, Some Secrets (Výlet, 2002), brought her a Czech Golden Lion for Best Screenplay and the Best New Director award at the San Sebastian IFF. She has also worked with the Prague theatres Bez zábradlí and Na zábradlí (with her original play The Floods, for which she came 3rd in the Alfréd Radok Awards theatre competition), and with Divadlo v Řeznické.