Archive of films Fighter / Fighter

Czech Republic / Italy / USA
1998, 91 min

Section: Documentary Films - Out of Competition
Year: 2011

Jan Wiener (1920–2010), fought as a pilot during the Second World War, he fought against the Communist dictatorship and against his initial dificulties in emigration. Together with his friend, writer Arnošt Lustig (1926–2011) he travels to the places where he experienced the most dramatic moments of his life.

Synopsis

During the Second World War, Jan Wiener (1920-2010) fled from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia through Yugoslavia and Italy to Great Britain, where he fought as an RAF pilot. Because of this he was sent to a Communist camp in his own country. Later he emigrated once again and lived in Lenox, Massachusetts. Arnošt Lustig (1926-2011), a journalist, author and screenwriter who spent part of his childhood in a concentration camp, became a close friend of Wiener. Both men are the protagonists of a new journey along Wiener’s one-time "route.” The elderly emigrant revisits places where he went through various dramatic and even tragic events, and meets people who helped him through that difficult time. In addition to Wiener himself, writer Lustig also narrates his friend’s tale and perceives the past in his own way – as a series of Odyssean stories. The protagonists do not always agree about what happened, nor about what the events signified. Alongside Wiener stands a person with a controversial nature, a zealous narrator who is so strongly convinced he is right that it sometimes even threatens their friendship.

About the director

Amir Bar-Lev, American producer and documentary film director. He studied briefly at FAMU in 1997. His film Fighter won the Special Jury Prize in Karlovy Vary’s documentary film section. My Kid Could Paint That (2007) was premiered at Sundance and subsequently competed at Karlovy Vary. He produced the documentary Trouble the Water (2008), which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. His latest film is the biographical documentary The Tillman Story (2010). Amir Bar-Lev is chairman of the documentary jury at this year’s festival.

Contacts

Axis Films, Inc.
35 Underhill ave. Apt 2G, Brooklyn, NY 11238, New York
United States of America
Tel: +1 347 573 940 6
Fax: +1 866 476 413 2
E-mail: [email protected]

The Weinstein Company
345 Hudson St., 13th Floor, 100 14, New York
United States of America
Tel: +1 646 862 3402
Fax: +1 917 368 6986
E-mail: [email protected]

About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Documentary Films - Out of Competition

Director:	Amir Bar-Lev
Dir. of Photography:	Gary Griffin
Music:	Jeff Daniel, Gillian Melris
Editor:	Amir Bar-Lev
Producer:	Amir Bar-Lev, Jon Crosby, Alex Mamlet
Production:	Axis Films, Inc.
Contact:	Axis Films, Inc., The Weinstein Company

www:	www.axisfilms.net/fighterfilm/

Guests

Amir Bar-Lev

Film Director, Film Director