Archive of films Honeymoon / Líbánky

Czech Republic / Slovak Republic
2013, 92 min

Section: Official Selection - Competition
Year: 2013

A wedding is supposed to be a joyous occasion, but things can go awry. When an uninvited guest turns up at the church and later at the reception as well, the newly-weds’ day turns sour. Shadows of the past can blight the most sumptuous of banquets and rend the most affectionate of embraces.

Synopsis

Tereza and Radim seem like the ideal couple, and their wedding ceremony and the reception afterwards are nothing short of perfect. But then a mysterious young man turns up who appears to be a friend of the groom, although no-one initially wants to acknowledge his presence. The film endeavours to introduce a sense of ambiguity not only into the act of marriage as a life-changing event we normally associate with positive emotions, but also into the way it portrays its protagonists, whose ostensibly desirable lives gradually start to reveal something sinister hidden underneath. Through its heroes, it then attempts to question and re-examine moral issues without passing any kind of judgement. Reminiscent in its best moments of the visually compelling and coldly analytical Nordic dramas, Honeymoon crowns the director’s loose trilogy that began with the films Kawasaki Rose (2009) and Innocence (2011), whose characters also have to contend with shadows from the past that reappear to haunt them later in life.

About the director

Jan Hřebejk (b. 1967, Prague) is one of the Czech Republic’s most prolific and most versatile film directors. He has also been directing for the stage since 1997 (one of his most famous productions was Bullets over Broadway). His debut Big Beat (1993) won the very first Czech Lion Awards for Best Picture and Best Direction. Cosy Dens, which competed at KVIFF in 1999, and Pupendo (2003) feature among the biggest hits of Czech post-revolution cinema. Hřebejk was nominated for an Academy Award for the war tragicomedy Divided We Fall (2000), receiving another Czech Lion for Best Director. Since filming Kawasaki’s Rose (2009), he has opted for more weighty moral and social themes. In 2006 he won the Special Jury Prize at Karlovy Vary for Beauty in Trouble. This year we are also screening his film Garbage, The City and Death (2012).

Contacts

Fog'n'Desire Films
Voroněžská 24, 101 00, Praha 10
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 775 204 809
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.fogndesirefilms.com

Falcon a.s.
Radlická 1c/3185, 150 00, Praha 5
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 224 422 222
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.falcon.cz

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About the film

Color, DCP
World premiere

Section:	Official Selection - Competition

Director:	Jan Hřebejk
Screenplay:	Petr Jarchovský
Dir. of Photography:	Martin Štrba
Music:	Aleš Březina
Editor:	Alois Fišárek
Producer:	Viktor Tauš, Michal Kollár
Production:	Fog’n’Desire Films, s.r.o.
Cast:	Anna Geislerová, Stanislav Majer, Jiří Černý
Contact:	Fog'n'Desire Films, Falcon a.s.
Distributor:	Falcon a.s.