Two major events happened at the Hotel Thermal Grand Hall on Saturday. The first one, quite surprisingly, was the presentation of a short documentary tribute to Petr Folprecht. A studied lawyer, he has become a KVIFF legend as the man who put down microphone stands obstructing the audience’s view. He did so for the first time 30 years ago and has played this role until this year. On Saturday, having done the act once again to the audience’s standing ovations, he symbolically said farewell to his specific profession.
Only then did Karel Och, the KVIFF artistic director, present a digitally restored copy of the “Wallachian western” Shadows of Hot Summer in the presence of a delegation including director of photography Ivan Šlapeta and the KVIFF President Jiří Bartoška. He recalled his role of the White-haired Man in the film, which won the 1977 Grand Prix – Crystal Globe. “It is true that I stood on the stage as part of the delegation that year. Time pulled the curtain, and I am standing at the same place in 2024”, he said in introduction. “If anyone thinks I already had grey hair in 1977, they’re terribly mistaken. I suggested we dye only a white streak of hair, but František (Vláčil) insisted on a full grey head. So I went to the hairdressers, where they accidentally burned all my hair in the bleaching. So they made me this wig, but when you see it, you’ll realize my black hair was far better”, he noted, making the full house laugh. Bartoška then thanked the Czech Film Fund, the National Film Archive, the Ministry of Culture and Mrs Milada Kučerová and Mr Eduard Kučera for their support in restoring Czech movie classics. "We have already restored 50 films and hope to restore another 50-200,” Eduard Kučera commented before the screening.
