Jan Němec returning to Cannes

Occupying a highly valued place at the fence, a grumpy old man in a wheelchair appeared next to the red carpet in front of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes last year. If Jean-Luc Godard had passed by, maybe he would have recognised the stubborn septuagenarian as Czech film director Jan Němec, a famous member of the Czech New Wave. The two met at this very spot back in 1968, when Němec’s film A Report on the Party and the Guests was in competition and had a good chance to pick up an award. His possible victory was thwarted by the revolutionary enthusiasm of French filmmakers, including Godard, who declared the festival cancelled as a gesture of solidarity with striking workers and students.

Last year, after 48 years, Jan Němec decided to return to Cannes and eternalise this situation in his new autobiographical feature film. Unfortunately, The Wolf, as he named his autobiographic main character, will be missing at the premiere. The director died shortly before finishing the film. 

His debut feature, Diamonds of the Night (Barrandov Film Studio), which premiered in 1964, was based on a story by Arnošt Lustig and followed two Jewish boys escaping from a transport during the Holocaust. His second film, A Report on the Party and the Guests (Barrandov Film Studio, 1966), voted Best Film of the Year by Film and Filming Magazine, brought him prohibition from further film work. A complete ban followed in 1968, after he smuggled to the West his footage of Soviet tanks in the streets of Prague.