Film Archive

Riedgost (The Garden of Eden, The Open Country Of A Lonely Man, Riedgost)

Czech Films 2002 / Radhošť (Zahrádka ráje, Otevřená krajina svobodného muže, Radhošť) / Czech Republic 2002

Three stories – The Garden of Eden, The Open Country of a Lonmely Man, Riedgost – introduce the youngest generation of Czech filmmakers. They are linked through the similarity of their story-telling poetic and their interest in uncommon environments and heroes. The filmmakers’ results confirm the saying that what we long for most is often sitting right in front of our eyes.

Synopsis

A triptych of stories made by the youngest generation of Czech filmmakers. The short The Garden of Paradise (dir. by Bohdan Sláma) dramatises a love story at a small train station where shy Stáňa, who likes reading train schedules best of all, struggles with his resolute aunt’s efforts to make a real man out of him. The medium-length work, The Open Landscape of a Free Man (dir. by Pavel Göbl), tells the vacation tale of a student who, thanks to a fateful coincidence, stays with an odd villager who teaches him to look at the world from a new perspective. In the medium-length story Radhošť (dir. by Tomáš Doruška) a pragmatic father visits his father-in-law in Moravian Wallachia. Thanks to the local plum brandy and fairy tales, the citified visitors enter for a time into a world of myth and magic. The three stories are linked through the similarity of their narrative poetics and their interest in uncommon environments and heroes. The filmmakers’ results confirm the saying that what we long for most is often sitting right in front of our eyes.

About the film

92 min / Black & white, 70 mm

Director Bohdan Sláma, Pavel Göbl, Tomáš Doruška / Screenplay Bohdan Sláma (1), Pavel Göbl (2), Tomáš Doruška (3) / Dir. of Photography Martin Douba (1), Martin Šácha (2), Tomáš Nováček (3) / Editor Jan Danihel (1), Tomáš Doruška (2), Šárka Sklenářová (3) / Producer Jiří Konečný / Production Jiří Konečný, FAMU, Tomáš Doruška / Cast Jaromír Dulava, Marie Mazurová (1), Zdeněk Marek, Jiří Vymětal (2), Luboš Oravec, Petr Fiala, Dominika Chmelařová, Vraťa Hauser (3)

About the director

Bohdan Sláma (b. 1967, Opava, Czechoslovakia) graduated in engineering from Prague’s ČVUT and in direction from Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU) in 1997. He gained his first success while still in school with The Garden of Eden(1994). He graduated with the medium-length White Acacias (1996), which found its way into Czech distribution. His feature debut, The Wild Bees (2001) has been received with great acclaim. Pavel Göbl (b. 1969) is at present winding up studies in direction at Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU) and shooting a feature fairy tale in Slovakia. He has shot the short films Spiders Never Sleep (1997), Heartbreak Hotel (1998), Maple Syrup (2000) and Maple Goulash (2002). Tomáš Doruška (b. 1977, Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, CZ) added studies in editing at Prague’s Film Academy to childhood amateur experiences. He has made the shorts Good Heart (1998, Lačo Jilo) and R’utobös (1999, collaboration), and the documentary Little Janek (2000, Malý Janek).