Czech Films 2017–2018 2018 / Tlumočník / Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Austria 2018
Who suffers more, the son of the victim or the son of the murderer? Presented at the Berlinale, Martin Šulík’s coproduction drama follows a journey taken by two dissimilar men who are bound together by the tragedy of the Holocaust. Starring Jiří Menzel and Peter Simonischek, a familiar face from the successful Toni Erdmann.
An 80-year-old Slovak man named Ali (Jiří Menzel) heads to Vienna to see the former SS officer responsible for his parents’ death. Instead of the perpetrator, however, he only finds his 70-year-old son Georg (Peter Simonischek), who disavowed his father’s past long ago. Opposites attract for some reason, and Ali intrigues Georg, so the pair set off on a trip through Slovakia in order to shed light on the wartime tragedy. Yet an unavoidable settling of accounts ferments beneath the veneer of comic discord between ascetic Ali and bon vivant Georg: The darkness of the past can never entirely fade away. In an era of dangerous revisionism surrounding the events of the Second World War, the filmmakers emphasize the healing effects of dialogue between individuals and nations.
Jan Škoda
113 min / Color, DCP
Director Martin Šulík
/ Screenplay Marek Leščák, Martin Šulík
/ Dir. of Photography Martin Štrba
/ Music Vladimír Godár
/ Editor Olina Kaufmanová
/ Producer Rudolf Biermann, Martin Šulík, Bruno Wagner
/ Production In Film Praha s.r.o.
/ Coproduction RTVS – Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska, Česká televize
/ Cast Jiří Menzel, Peter Simonischek, Zuzana Mauréry
/ Sales Celluloid Dreams
/ Distributor AQS a.s.
Martin Šulík (b. 1962, Žilina, Czechoslovakia). Selected filmography: Tenderness (1991), Everything I Like (1992), The Garden (1995), Orbis Pictus (1997), Landscape (2000), The City of the Sun (2005), Gypsy (2011), Slovakia 2.0 (2014)
AQS a.s.
Na Klikovce 7/367, 140 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 221 436 100
E-mail: [email protected]
Celluloid Dreams
2, rue Turgot, 75009, Paris
France
Phone: +33 149 700 370
E-mail: [email protected]
Rudolf Biermann
Producer
Olina Kaufmanová
Film Editor, Producer
Helena Uldrichová
TV Representative
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