Czech Films 2012–2013 2013 / Pevnost / Czech Republic 2012
Half a million inhabitants who need multiple passports in order to travel. A president who announces a policy of "stable changes.” A strange post-communist twilight – and all this in the Europe of 2012. This documentary, shot in the Pridnestrovie region without due permission, is one of the most noteworthy Czech films of recent years.
The air is heavy with danger but in reality it’s nothing. Pridnestrovie is a remarkable country about whose very existence most Europeans are completely unaware. Its inhabitants are formally Moldovans but they are also citizens of this autonomous republic. And that’s precisely where two documentarists, disguised as tourists, set out to quietly capture an exceptionally eloquent narrative about a land where old-timers run a risk in returning to the years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The filmmakers, however, never resort to the cheap exoticism that the bizarre realities of life here might elicit from others in their trade. They instead reveal an interest in the local residents as they seek to describe what the future holds. Despite discussing the sorrow of the isolation they felt while filming and the numerous questions that arise, the directing duo finds sincere contentment among the citizens of Pridnestrovie. How free are the half-million inhabitants of this remote country? Is life there as demoralizing as the pervasive grayness and palpable lack of energy would indicate? And will the presidential election provoke at least a modicum of joy?
70 min / Color, DCP
Director Lukáš Kokeš, Klára Tasovská
/ Screenplay Klára Tasovská, Lukáš Kokeš
/ Dir. of Photography Lukáš Kokeš
/ Editor Klára Tasovská, Lukáš Kokeš
/ Producer Pavla Kubečková, Tomáš Hrubý
/ Production nutprodukce, s.r.o.
/ Contact Taskovski Films Ltd., Artcam Films
/ Distributor Artcam Films
Lukáš Kokeš (b. 1983), cameraman and director, studied at Charles University’s Humanities Faculty; now he is finishing up at Prague’s Film Academy. His early short films aroused interest at Czech and foreign festivals. For the series "Czech Journal” he directed the documentary Bootleg Republic (Pančovaná republika, 2013), and he works with Czech Television on other projects as well. The directors’ cooperative effort Fortress is their greatest success to date (screened at prestigious festivals in Copenhagen and Helsinki, among others). Klára Tasovská (b. 1980, Třebíč, Czechoslovakia), director, came up with the story for the film. She is a graduate of the New Media studio of Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts, and is currently completing her studies in documentary filmmaking at Prague’s Film Academy. Her medium-length movie Midnight (Půlnoc, 2010) was well-received at festivals around the world. She has cooperated with Czech Television for a number of years.
Taskovski Films Ltd.
19-21 Christopher Street, EC2A 2B, London
United Kingdom
Phone: +387 656 520 46
E-mail: [email protected]
Artcam Films
Rašínovo nábřeží 6, 128 00, Praha 2
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 221 411 619
Fax: +420 221 411 699
E-mail: [email protected]
Přemysl Martinek
Film Institution Rep., Producer
Lukáš Kokeš
Film Director, Film Institution Rep., Producer
Klára Tasovská
Producer
Tomáš Hrubý
Producer
Pavla Janoušková Kubečková
Producer
Marija Shajahan
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