Archive of films Eighty Letters / Osmdesát dopisů

Czech Republic
2011, 75 min

Section: Czech Films 2010–2011
Year: 2011

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 to be with Vašek’s father. In an intimate, spiritual piece, debuting director Václav Kadrnka reconstructs a single day in communist Czechoslovakia as he, himself, had experienced it as a 14-year-old boy.

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).

Contacts

Artcam Films
Rašínovo nábřeží 6, 128 00, Praha 2
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 221 411 619
Fax: +420 221 411 699
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.artcam.cz

Alice Tabery
E-mail: [email protected]
www: cinepoint.cz

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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Czech Films 2010–2011

Director:	Václav Kadrnka
Screenplay:	Jiří Soukup, Václav Kadrnka
Dir. of Photography:	Braňo Pažitka
Music:	Ondřej Krajňák
Editor:	Pavel Kolaja
Producer:	Simona Kadrnková
Production:	Václav Kadrnka
Cast:	Zuzana Lapčíková, Martin Pavluš
Contact:	Artcam Films, Alice Tabery
Distributor:	Artcam Films

www:	www.vaclavkadrnka.com/cz/

Guests

Václav Kadrnka

Film Director / Producer

Zuzana Lapčíková

Actor

Artemio Benki

Distributor, Film Director, Producer

Sylva Poláková

Distributor

Kamila Dohnalová

Festival Organizer, Producer