Social & External
In 35 years of one couple's shared life, a lot of things happen: from the moments of an absolute harmony to the dramatic falls. For the most of the time, the couple cares for common daily life issues and joys that come together with raising the children, running the household or running a business. And this is exactly the life of furniture shop owners Ivana and Vaclav Strnadovi, 2 characters that a director Helena Trestíková follows with her camera as of the year 1980 within a project The Marriage Story. Her new feature documentary about Strnad family is linked to TV films from this cycle, but most importantly it shows further shocking twists, that life brought to the couple and their children.
“You bet on someone in the beginning of the process and then you wait and see what life does with them.” This is how Czech director Helena Trestikova explains her long-term documentaries. Following on from the European Film Academy Award winning RENE (2008), Trestikova brings us KATKA – 14 years in the life of a drug addict. KATKA is an extraordinarily raw and uncensored character portrait of a troubled young woman living on the edge of human existence, desperately searching for love and salvation. Will she find it in the rehab? Will she find it in the arms of the man she loves? Or in the first cry of her long-desired baby? Tagging along with her through the back streets and squalors of Prague, Trestikova gets deep under the skin of a person most of us would cross the road to avoid, and shows us Katka’s profoundly human face. You might be angry with Katka, or your heart may go out to her. One thing is certain – you will never forget her.
The life of Marcela, an ordinary Czech woman is explored throughout several decades of her life. We are engaged to struggle and fight back with Marcela as her tragic life unfolds before our eyes especially when dealing with her daughter’s unexpected death, which almost drives her to suicide. The film was initially part of a series about the fate of six married couples, but the events that happened throughout Marcela’s life were the reason why the director decided to focus solely on a documentary about her.
Life hasn't been easy on Mallory but after the birth of her son she tries desperately to kick her drug habit, and to stop living on the street. She wants to turn her back on her dark past and help those she knows best - people on the fringes of society.
Anny follows the life of the titular, intriguing character for 16 years, from 1996 up until 2012. Living in the Czech Republic, Anny is a 46-year-old woman whose day-to-day life has consisted of several different occupations, from a bathroom attendant and a doorman, to occasional sex work. Her outlook on her jobs is fairly simple, you have to do the work if you want to eat, spoil your grandkids, or buy yourself new clothes.
The Czech criminal René is finding it difficult to go straight. Roaming from job to shelter, from woman to woman, he discovers that living honestly is a lot more difficult than just stealing something every once in a while. In 1989, filmmaker Helena Třeštíková started filming the then 18-year-old delinquent, ultimately resulting in the 2008 film René, which follows his life inside and outside prison. This sequel to that film begins with the premiere of René and the ensuing storm of media attention.
An observational documentary about Jakub Špalek and all his activities, victories and losses in the years 1989 to 1999.
A documentary film following several years in the life of Jan Potměšil who has become a very popular actor at an early age, representing the type of a young sporty intellectual. After a serious car crash in 1989, he ended up on a wheelchair. He was 23 years old at the time. After a year of rehabilitation, he returned to the stage. Excelling in “Flowers for Algernon”, he continuously acts in the production in front of sell-out crowds across the country. He also lives his personal life, experiencing new loves and breakups, is engaged in civic affairs and returns to the hospital now and then. The film aims to give a non-pathetic image of a life lived to the full despite adversity.
This time-lapse documentary follows the last years of former President Václav Havel's life, creating a multi-layered portrait of a world-famous political icon and important playwright, but also an ordinary man plagued by health problems. Havel allows the filmmakers a glimpse behind the scenes of his life, revealing purely personal moments that present him in previously unrecognised contours. With a sense of humour, he reflects on his political legacy and universal human issues. The central motif is formed by the parallels between Havel's life and the successful play Leaving, which Havel always wanted to direct as a film adaptation.
Pavlina is a drug addict imprisoned, as well as her boyfriend, for illegal drug manufacturing. They meet again after the amnesty and the vicious circle of drugs starts rolling again.
René has been in prison since he was 16. He is sick of life and doesn’t care about his parents (just as René’s parents never cared about him when he was a child); he doesn’t even know how many more children they had. After the general amnesty, René just hangs around, not satisfied in any job, and with his younger brother he starts stealing. In no time he is back in prison, this time joined by his brother who is still a youth. History repeats itself and René’s life philosophy seems to be confirmed: You enjoy your freedom for a while, then go to prison and the same thing happens all over again.
Lada is a product of "educational“ or "corrective“ institutions. Not only is he not educated or corrected, he simply does not understand anything about life. He solves his problems in his own way – by swallowing sharp objects.
"The whole film talks about the time when I was first locked up, from sixteen till now, I’m 22 now, and during that whole time I was out maybe five months, and I’ve really had it by now. It’s also about why I’d given my life to Jesus Christ and then failed that Jesus in me because I was tempted by earthly pleasures; and it’s also about how every time I’m ready to start a new life, I get locked up again because it’s always too late. It’s just too late. That’s the greatest shame and that’s what it’s about..."
An intimate portrait of a man on the edge of society, filmed over the course of twenty years.
An untraditional documentary portrait reveals the complicated personality of the Slovak music legend Jožo Ráž, the singer for the pop-rock group Elán. From recordings of everyday situations, playful moments, intimate conversations about God and death, and memories of the past, the director composes a complex image of a man loved by the masses, who, despite all his life successes, feels lonely.
For twelve years, a film crew has been following the lives of four people who appeared in public in November 1989. Musician Michael Kocáb, dissident Jan Ruml, young participant in the National Avenue intervention Kryštof Rímský, and student leader Martin Mejstřík. The period after November opened up new possibilities, opportunities, and chances for everyone. This unique film project captures their search, their wanderings, their resolutions, and their doubts on the path to finding their own place in the turbulent waters of a transforming society.
SENIORS ROCKING explores the artistic process of Anna Halprin, a pioneer of American dance, through the prism of a single performance piece. The film retraces not only the development of a unique performance with residents of two nursing homes in California, but also the growth of a sense of community when fifty people from various walks of life, age 65 to 100, join forces to perform together. Underpinned by Halprin’s conviction that dance and movement embolden people to express themselves and, in so doing, change their lives, the film shows how the participants give physical shape to their personal messages for posterity through a dance performance.
Serial killers have plagued the American landscape for decades, committing gruesome atrocities, and providing some tough cases for criminal investigators to crack. Two detectives are on the trail of a bizarre murderer intent on slaughtering his victims, then using them as real-life puppets in a tale that he is trying to tell.
The horrific crime of female genital mutilation is banned in the UK but it is estimated that nearly 20,000 young women a year are still at risk of the procedure. And despite being banned more than 30 years ago, there have been no successful convictions. This harrowing documentary, from reporter Cathy Newman, follows the work of DCI Leanne Pook and her team, who are tackling the crime in Bristol.
Through a haze of smoke, coke, and booze; possible futures, pasts, and presents coalesce chaos inside the mind of a man drifting directionless through life. When your future calls, what will you have to say?
Unaware of her brother Raghunandan's evil plans, Laxmi ill-treats her stepchildren, causing them to run away. What follows after is a young girl’s transition to a woman battling for survival, her brother’s education, and to reconcile with her long lost family.
Mickey and his friends take a close look at important street safety situations and tips.
An unsupervised junior soccer team loses its ace player to the leader of a rival gang. Since only an entire team can win, they must have her back to be able to win the game against the national team. The existence of The Wild Soccer Bunch is at stake ...
Scooby-Doo and the mystery inc gang battle fiends and gobs of eerie monsters.
Fight Club Rush 12 takes place Saturday, May 7, 2022 with 9 fights at Vasteras Arena in Västerås, Sweden.
When a threat no one could have expected bears down on the Marvel Universe, this ragtag, untrained band of teens have no choice but to rise together and prove to the world that sometimes the difference between a 'hero' and 'misfit' is just in the name.
A Puerto Rican seamstress ponders leaving her island to go live with her daughter in the United States.
Using images from my childhood and phone calls from key people in my life, we explore my particular sense of what is home to me. The home is not a place but a sensation produced by many more common factors that characterize our generation.
A thrilling journey through legends, belief and folklore, this film goes behind the scenes with the British Library as they search to tell that story through objects in their collection, in an ambitious new exhibition: Harry Potter: A History Of Magic. J.K. Rowling, who is lending unseen manuscripts, drawings and drafts from her private archives (which will sit alongside treasures from the British Library, as well as original drafts and drawings from Jim Kay) talks about some of the personal items she has lent to the exhibition and gives new insight into her writing, looking at some of the objects from the exhibition that have fired her imagination.
Hakan who made arranged marriage with his best friend in order to have a child, found himself in an unexpected love and was devastated with the death of her, Derya, in childbirth. On the other side, Candan who is trying to deal with her painful but unique childhood. As Hakan and Candan are suppose to complete each other's life, it is not going to be that easy get used to each other.
This film portrays the issue of child trafficking and the intervention of authorities on that issue.
Various different holiday locations ar joined together through the pleasures of ice cream in The Mutt & Jeff Icecream Sundae, while in Mothman the strange title character crawls through roof-top windows and we see footage of a funfair. These two films have many similarities with the other Keen diary movies but have always been shown in this pairing, and under this title.
Dad catches a ball badly, injuring his finger. His guttural scream instantly hushes the entire sports complex. Sarah is paralysed. She barely recognises him; red faced, clutching his hand and crying. In the sanctuary of the locker changing rooms, Sarah explores and tests theories about what has happened with her Dad. She questions who her father is while struggling to grasp the concept of pain, both inside and out. Having found an apparent conclusion, Sarah returns to an apologetic Dad, and decides to put his promises to the test.music:Annette Focksproducer:Tobias Rosen, Heike Wiehle-Timmproduction:Relevant Film, Warner Bros Entertainment Germanybacking:Deutscher Filmförderfonds (DFFF) (DE), Schleswig-Holstein Film Commission (DE), Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA)(DE)distributor:Warner Bros Entertainment Germany
