The first press conference of this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival was, fittingly, for the opening war drama Anthropoid, which received a five-minute ovation at its world premiere in the Grand Hall.
This film, which tells the story of the Czechoslovak paratroopers sent to assassinate Nazi Reinhard Heydrich, was made by Sean Ellis, a Briton who has devoted the last fifteen years to this project. "Sometimes it takes an outsider to reveal your own history to you as something exceptional, because you yourselves just take it for granted," the director and co-screenwriter told the journalists.
"When you make a film based on real events, you become a detective. You come across differing perspectives, on a whole range of topics, that sometimes conflict one another. Then you have to decide which perspective is the right one for your drama. In this sense, Anthropoid is my version of what happened," answered Ellis when asked about his work with the historical evidence.
Ellis was accompanied at the press conference by three producers and six actors, including Czech star Anna Geislerová. "I grew up believing that the paratroopers were heroes, so this project was an absolute gift," the actress revealed. After reading the script for the story of Operation Anthropoid her foreign co-actors, who had previously not known much about it, were overwhelmed. "It was close to the hearts of all of us when we started filming," said Jamie Dornan, who played the character of Jan Kubiš. Cillian Murphy, who played Jozef Gabčík, was unable to attend the premiere. His colleague Dornan apologised on his behalf, saying, "He started filming another war film two days ago, and is at this moment evacuating Dunkirk beach."
The producer, David Ondříček, hopes that this Czech/British/French film will be released at Czech cinemas before the end of the year. He believes that "it is a very important film for future generations".
You can watch the whole press conference here.
