Nothing Against Nothing

Colour, DIGIBETA
Czech Republic, 2011, 98 min
WP - World Premiere
Section: East of the West - Films in Competition

About the film

Young married couple Radek and Johana are considering adoption. In order to weigh up the possible risks, they gatecrash a meeting of their contemporaries who grew up in adoptive families and contacted each other via internet chat rooms. A group of thirty-somethings get together at a campsite for a few days in order to set up an association in support of adoption. Despite their shared fate and "noble” intentions, the members of this small community don’t hit it off. Where does pretentious tolerance end and buck-passing indifference begin? And what has decent morality got in common with xenophobia? As an ironic reflection that questions how prepared we should be to help each other out, the film offers a sophisticated and poetic take on the grimly authentic style of the Dogme 95 Manifesto. This satirical comedy was the result of collaboration with the LÁHOR/Soundsystem theatre group, which focuses on realistic collective stage improvisation within the structure of a predetermined story.

About the director

Petr Marek (b. 1974, Prostějov, Czech Republic) is one of the most distinctive Czech experimental filmmakers. He studied film science at Charles University and is currently involved in publishing and teaching (FAMU). Since the late 1980s he has created around thirty shorts and seven feature-length films via the production company Unarfilm. Sooner than... (1997) is part of the NFA’s Czech Experimental Film collection. With Vít Janeček he filmed a TV documentary about the Karlovy Vary festival, In the Centre of Film (In the Warmth of Home), and worked as assistant cameraman on Late Night Talks with Mother (2001-02, dir. Jan Němec). He made it onto the big screen with the poetic comedy Love from Above (2002) followed by the "realistic mystery” Not of Today (2005). He also works as an actor and found fame as a member of the acclaimed band Midi Lidi (e.g. Czech Lion for their music for Protector; Czech Film Critics’ Award for the soundtrack for the documentary Czech Peace).