Czech Films 2003-2004 2004 / Želary / Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Austria 2003
This ballad-like film, inspired by Květa Legátová’s novels Želary and Joza’s Hanule, was the most successful Czech film of 2003 with both critics and audiences.
Eliška was a medical student when the Nazis closed the Czech universities, which forced her to take a job as a hospital nurse. However, one day she is unexpectedly faced with the consequences of becoming involved in resistance activities with her lover, a doctor at work. When threatened with capture, her colleagues hide the young woman under a new identity. Eliška – now Hana – leaves Brno with one of her patients. She barely knows the rough and silent Joza, and is rather frightened of him. Hiding out in a mountain solitude as Joza’s unwilling and clumsy wife, the spoilt girl from the big city eventually gets to know not only love full of tenderness and passion, but also pain. Yet not even this country idyll, in which Joza and Eliška/Hana find refuge for their deep relationship, can avoid the cruelties of war. The film was based on the autobiographical prose by Květa Legátová.
149 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Ondřej Trojan
/ Screenplay Petr Jarchovský
/ Dir. of Photography Asen Šopov
/ Music Petr Ostrouchov
/ Editor Vladimír Barák
/ Producer Ondřej Trojan, Helena Uldrichová
/ Production Total HelpArt T. H. A., koprodukce / co-production: Česká televize/Czech Television, Alef Film and Media Group, Dor Film
/ Cast Aňa Geislerová, György Cserhalmi, Jaroslava Adamová
/ Contact Total HelpArt T.H.A., Česká televize, Menemsha Films, Inc. , Falcon a.s.
Ondřej Trojan (b. 1959, Prague) is a producer, director and actor who made a name for himself with Prague’s Sklep Theatre. He is from an acting family, but studied mathematics and chemistry at the School of Education of Charles University. He worked at Barrandov Film Studios as a property man for two years, and in 1985 began to study at Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU), where he made his first short films (e.g. Seven). He interrupted his studies in 1990 to shoot the feature Let’s All Sing Around. After graduating he made a two-part TV movie about Sklep called Boarding House. With his Sklep colleagues he founded Total HelpArt T.H.A., a company aimed at producing films and audiovisual works. He has produced a number of feature films there, including Big Beat (1993), Cosy Dens (1999), Divided We Fall (2000) and Pupendo (2003) by Jan Hřebejek and Out of the City (2000) by Tomáš Vorel. Zelary was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category.
Total HelpArt T.H.A.
Kříženeckého nám. 322, 152 53, Praha 5
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 267 073 007
Fax: +420 267 073 836
E-mail: [email protected]
Česká televize
Kavčí hory, 140 70, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 261 131 111
E-mail: [email protected]
Menemsha Films, Inc.
213 Rose Avenue, 2nd floor, CA 902 91, Venice
United States of America
Phone: +1 310 452 1775
Fax: +1 310 452 3740
E-mail: [email protected]
Falcon a.s.
Radlická 3185/1c, 150 00, Praha 5
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 224 422 222
E-mail: [email protected]
Marcela Krejčí
Producer
Ondřej Trojan
Festival Organizer, Film Director, Producer
Daria Špačková
Producer
Neil Friedman
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