Eighty Letters

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2011, 75 min
Section: Czech Films 2010 - 2011

Synopsis

29 March 1987. Director Václav Kadrnka reconstructs a single day in communist Czechoslovakia as he, himself, had experienced it as a 14-year-old boy. Adolescent Vašek accompanies his determined mother as she tries to gather the necessary documents and permits which will allow them both to travel outside the Iron Curtain. His mother spends every spare minute writing to her husband, who recently emigrated for political reasons to Great Britain. Yet an intense unexpressed bond continues between her and her son.... In this stylistically and formally exceptional piece, the debuting filmmaker hardly makes any references to period lifestyles or actualities, thus shifting the story towards the realm of abstract existential drama. The economical, finely wrought narrative of a divided family examines the spiritual message pervading their sense of nostalgia and yearning. The film was screened in the Forum section and selected for the Best First Feature Award at this year’s Berlinale. It also picked up the Golden Kingfisher award at Finále Plzeň.

About the director

Václav Kadrnka (b. 1973, Gottwaldov, now Zlín) moved with his mother to Great Britain in 1988 to join his father who had emigrated for political reasons one year previously. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1992. He worked as assistant director for Vojtěch Jasný and, in the years 1999-2008, studied film direction at Prague’s FAMU. His acclaimed student films were screened at a number of international festivals (e.g. Mar del Plata, Munich, New York, Karlovy Vary, Berlin). Selected filmography: FAMU bachelor degree film Passengers (2002 – ESP Award at the International Student FF in Munich, Terezín Brick award from the Terezín Fort Film Festival, winner of the student film section at Ein Fenster Zum Osten (International festival for noncommercial film in Berlin); the documentary Elegy of Wood (2009 – main prize at the Patras City Panorama IFF).