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Film Archive

Bonds of Blood

Czech Films 2005-2006 2006 / Krev zmizelého / Czech Republic 2005

An epic historical drama based on a story and screenplay by Vladimír Körner, set in the period from 1939 to 1961. This moving story of a mother and daughter also describes the tragic fate of individuals, the victims of war, the transfer of the Sudeten Germans and the Communist regime, but it also tells of love, mercy and redemption.

Bonds of Blood Bonds of Blood

Synopsis

This epic historical drama starts after the outbreak of the 2nd World War. In a German field hospital a Czech girl, Helga, saves the life of a young Baltic nobleman who has fled the Soviet menace, joined the German army and has been wounded. They have a brief affair, the young man chooses suicide rather than return to the front, and Helga later gives birth to a daughter, Dorli. After the end of the war and the expulsion of the Germans, the 1950s and 1960s bring more suffering to the mother and daughter. The complicated plot, involving events in the autumn and winter of 1939, the spring of 1945, the summer of 1956 and the autumn of 1961, unfolds mainly on the Moravian-Polish borders and culminates in the Belgian Congo. In addition to the moving story of mother and daughter, the film tells of the victims of war, the brutal transfer of the Sudeten Germans and the inhumanity of the Communist regime, but also of love, mercy and redemption. After the film Spring of Life (Pramen života – Der Lebensborn), this is the director’s second collaboration with leading screenwriter and novelist Vladimír Körner.

About the film

126 min / Color, 35 mm

Director Milan Cieslar / Screenplay Vladimír Körner / Dir. of Photography Jiří Macháně / Music Jean Sibelius / Editor Miloslav Liška, Milan Cieslar / Producer Milan Cieslar / Production Happy Celluloid / Cast Vilma Cibulková, Ester Geislerová, Martin Huba, Igor Bareš, Emma Černá, Ondřej Vetchý, Václav Jiráček, Vladimír Dlouhý, Jiří Lábus, Simona Stašová, Karel Dobrý / Contact Happy Celluloid s.r.o. / Distributor Alena Tocháčková, Bioscop (Magicbox a.s.)
www: www.krevzmizeleho.cz

About the director

Milan Cieslar

Milan Cieslar (1960, Český Těšín) studied production at Čimelice Film School and direction at Prague’s FAMU (1984). He is the author of many television productions, films and fairytales. He made his film debut with an action movie set in the world of horse-racing, Dynamite (Dynamit, 1989), and followed this with the psychological drama Somewhere It May Be Nice (Někde je možná hezky, 1991), the psychological crime film The Taste of Death (Jak chutná smrt, 1995), the balladic story of a girl forced into the Nazi programme for breeding a racially pure generation during the 2nd World War, Spring of Life (Pramen života – Der Lebensborn, 2000), based on a story by Vladimír Körner, and the bitter-sweet contemporary comedy Soul Like Caviar (Duše jako kaviár, 2004). Apart from directing films and television programmes he works as a screenwriter and producer. In 1993 he founded the independent production company Happy Celluloid.

Contacts

Alena Tocháčková

Happy Celluloid s.r.o.
Na Břevnovské pláni 16a/2122, 160 00, Praha 6
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 257 315 089
Fax: +420 257 315 087
E-mail: [email protected]

Bioscop (Magicbox a.s.)
Na Klikovce 7, 140 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 221 436 100
E-mail: [email protected]

Guests

Jitka Procházková
Festival Organizer, TV Representative

Milan Cieslar
Film Director / Producer

Vladimír Körner
Screenwriter

Petra Štovíková
Festival Organizer, Producer, TV Representative

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