Night Owls

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2008, 80 min
WP – World premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

Ofka is stuck in a strange torpor: while the majority of her school friends have continued with their studies, she refuses to leave the delusory comfort of her childhood which is, however, rapidly beginning to stifle her. She works the night shift at a 24-hour convenience store owned by her brother-in-law Eda, and lets the snatches of conversation wash over her, as regulars and casual customers come in with their tales of wasted lives, along with distant friends who, like her, are awake when the rest of the city sleeps. She occasionally escapes to have a drink with her friends on the banks of the Vltava, and she roams the streets with the oddball Ubr who, apart from being hopelessly in love with her, has a fascination for the contents of garbage cans. Ofka tries to avoid Míra who has left her. But it’s becoming increasingly obvious to her that, one day, she’ll have to leave her childhood behind, cross the boundaries of the neighbourhood where she was born, and get on with her life… In her second feature – an intimate story of a girl caught between childhood and adulthood – Oscar-nominated director Michaela Pavlátová focuses on authenticity and the alluring environment of Prague’s Karlín district.

About the director

Michaela Pavlátová (b. 1961, Prague) attended the Institute of Applied Arts. Her animated short Words, Words, Words (1991) was nominated for an Oscar and won awards at the IFFs in Leipzig, Montreal and Valladolid; animated short Repete (1995) garnered a Golden Bear at the Berlin IFF and awards at the festivals in Annecy, Leipzig, Hiroshima and Stuttgart; For Ever and Ever (1998) was awarded in Tampere and Viareggio; and Carnival of the Animals (2006) earned an Honourable Mention in Ottawa. During the mid-1990s she began working with documentarist Pavel Koutecký and later turned her attention towards feature film direction: she contributed with the segment Absolute Love to Prague Stories (1999), and she debuted with the feature film Faithless Games (2003 – Special Mention at the San Sebastian IFF). She has made a series of commercial spots and jingles and occasionally appears on screen as well.