News

We are participating on a big documentary production of ARTE and BBC4 TV channels with the working title “What remains after Tito”. The director of the movie is Mira Erdevicky-Charap, born in Yugoslavia. The executive producer of the project is French ZETA Production. During May, June and September Viktor Ekrt and Vaclav Flegl spent more than 3 weeks on locations in former Yugoslavia. They visited Tito’s sympathizers as well as opponents, political disciples, intellectuals from the opposition, people oppressed by the regime, prisoners from Tito’s concentrations camps, as well as naive admirers from former “Tito’s youth”. Twenty-six years after the death of the charismatic leader, the image and the “heritage” are still vivid. Surprisingly, this topic is absolutely unexhausted and intensive; in former Yugoslavia countries it provokes both joy and horror.The TV documentary should have 52 minutes, and a 72 minutes film transfer is planned. The D.O.P. is Marek Jicha, editor David Charap. It is scheduled to be finished before Christmas 2006. From technology perspective it is interesting that the picture is shot on a new HD-CAM format and sound (as almost always in the last two years) on AATON CANTAR-X.

Early summer we have spent on set of Russian Language Teacher - Georgian movie directed by Aleco Tsabadze. It is a detective story set in Moscow on background of Chechen conflict. First part has been produced in Kiev and than crew moved to Tbilisi and close neighborhood. Production itself runed in slower tempo as we are used at home, on the other hand there rested enough time to explore local environment.

Spring 2006 we have spent on set with Jan Sverak and his movie Vratne lahve (Returned Bottles). Based on the script by Zdenek Sverak who also plays the lead role in the film about a reluctantly retired teacher who takes a job in a supermarket. The film also stars Jirí Machácek (Horem pádem/Up and down) and Tatiana Vilhelmová (Štĕstí/Something like happiness) and will continue filming through May. Vladimír Smutný  will again handle cinematography. It will be released domestically by Falcon on 8 March 2007. The production could be followed on the film’s official website [in Czech].

Late summer 2005 we spent on “Grandhotel”, a film by David Ondricek. It is a bitter comedy about love, clouds, loneliness and the desire to make one’s dreams come true. The story is set in the town of Liberec (North Bohemia), for the most part in the Jested Hotel – a mysterious place between heaven and earth. The main character is a 30-year-old hotel porter Fleischman (Marek Taclik), a good-natured loser who has never had a girlfriend and never left his hometown. But he’s good at understanding weather, clouds and wind. Cast also includes: Klara Issova, Ladislav Mrkvicka, Jaromir Dulava, Jaroslav Plesl and Dita Zabranska. The film should becoming to cinemas in October 2006.

In autumn 2004 we took part in two international projects. First of them was the debut of Slovenian director Janja Glogovac L...kot ljubizen (L...like love) filmed in Ljubljana and Maribor, Slovenia.  The second project was a further movie by Italian director Fabrizio Costa Sacco e Vanzetti (Sacco and Vanzetti), filmed this time in Bulgaria.