WORKS IN PROGRESS
107 Mothers / orig. title 107 matek
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic
Directed by: Peter Kerekes / Scriptwriter: Ivan Ostrochovsky, Peter Kerekes
Camera: Martin Kollár / Language: Ukrainian, Russian
Genre: fiction / Release date: 07/2018

Film synopsis
Irina Alexandrovna works as a censor in Odessa prison. The control of the letters is given by law, to prevent the continuation of criminal activity. But the real criminals are using smartphones. Old fashioned letters are only used for declarations of love. So Irina, spends 8 hours a day in her office reading love letters. Through her, we follow different love affairs, which she can only observe. Even though she sees women being used, and the relationships end with disaster for them, she can’t take any action. Our heroine is a single female and after 12 years of reading love letters full of lies men tell, she is not capable of a relationship. If a guy on a date says “You are special,” she feels sick. But of course, even she dreams of love.

Director’s biography
Peter Kerekes (1973), born in Košice. He finished his film studies at film and TV faculty of Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava in 1998 with his diploma film Morytats and Legends of Ladomirova.

Filmography: Velvet Terrorists (2013) – audience prize (Tagesspiegel award) at Berlinale 2014, FEDEORA award in Karlovy Vary 2013; Cooking History (2009) – jury award at HotDocs 2009, best film at Chicago documentary film festival 20019, Nomination for the best documentary at European Film Awards.

EURIMAGES LAB
My Unknown Soldier / orig. title: Můj neznámý vojín
Czech Republic, Latvia, Slovak Republic, Germany
Directed by: Anna Kryvenko / Scriptwriter: Anna Kryvenko
Producer: Michal Kráčmer
Camera: Radka Šišuláková / Music: Andris Dzenitis
Language: Czech, Latvian, Slovak, German, Russian, Ukrainian
Genre: archive documentary / Release date: 2018

Film synopsis
“What is it like to be an occupier? I come from Ukraine and so did my granduncle. He was a young guy when he was forced to invade Czechoslovakia in 1968 as a Soviet soldier. Then he returned back home, but he couldn‘t cope with what he saw and also caused, even as an executor of someone’s orders. He committed suicide. His story could belong to any soldier, who happened to stand on a tank in August 1968 in Czechoslovakia. Using extensive archival footage, a complex examination of themes emerges, tied to the one soldier in the grand machinery of politics and history. This film isn‘t about general justice or truth. It is about how one becomes an occupier without his or her own intention.”

Director’s filmography
Anna Kryvenko is a video and fine art photography artist. She is a student of the last year of the Centre for Audio-Visual Studies at FAMU, Prague (CZ). Before she studied theatre directing at KNUTKT (UA) and alternative theatre directing at DAMU (CZ). Her films and performances were screened at Fluidum Festival, Jihlava IDFF (CZ), Intermedia BB (SK), Visions du Reél (SUI), etc. She participated in several group exhibitions. With her found-footage film Silently Like a Comet she won the Best Experimental Act award at Famufest (CZ). Her last film Listen to the Horizon won the Best Czech Experimental Documentary award at Jihlava IDFF (CZ).

Producer’s filmography
A graduate of Economic theories at the Charles University (CZ), currently finishing Film and TV production studies at FAMU (CZ). He lead development of the debut movie Kids from the East of awards-winning director Aramisova, with which they won 3 main awards at Agora Crossroads at Thessaloniki IFF (GR). He was awarded as a Promising Producer at Baltic Event by Black Nights Tallinn IFF (2014, EST) and Promotion Prize of the GWFF for talented producer at Cottbus IFF (2015, DE). As a producer, he attended various workshops or events like MIDPOINT, MAIA, SOFA, ARCHIDOC, dok.incubator, Trans Atlantic Partners, Producers Network at Cannes IFF and Berlinale Talents.

The Sound is Innocent
Czech Republic, France, Slovak Republic
Directed by: Johana Švarcová / Scriptwriter: Johana Švarcová, Lukáš Csicsely
Producer: Kristýna Květová, Cinémotif Films
Camera: Šimon Dvořáček / Music: Johana Švarcová, Martin Ožvold
Language: English, French, Czech
Genre: poetic musical experimental docu-journey / Release date: 02/2019

Film synopsis
The Sound is Innocent is a playful and poetic guidebook of the evolution and the history of electronic music in Europe. Our guide in this sonic world is Johana. For her, electronic music means a wide range for free artistic expression. Born in Czechoslovakia, she runs into a problem with her music production that leaves her paralyzed. How to find a direction in this free, seemingly endless space of expression? Which instrument should she choose? Johana fails to find satisfying answers in her environment and so she enters a dreamlike space beyond time, a recording studio, to talk to her guides about the keystones of creation and the important relation between the human and the machine…

Director’s filmography
Graduated from FAMU in Prague. Regularly collaborates with Czech Radio as a writer and a director of radio plays and audio-musical compositions. In 2009 she was awarded with “Prix Bohemia Radio”. In 2013 she created for online platform Artyčok.TV documentary series Interviews about Sound. She directed several docu-fiction short films: Hi, I'm doing fine (“Best documentary” – Fresh Film Fest 2014, Mise en scene – IFF Poitiers, “Best documentary” - IFF FIDÉ 2014 in Paris) or Process (Special Jury Award – IFF Febiofest SK 2016). In 2014 she elaborated a research on Film Music of Zdeněk Liška which led to the online publication. In 2015 she studied at Institute of Sonology in The Hague.

Producer’s filmography
Graduated from FAMU in Prague. In 2015 she produced her first feature Road-Movie by Martin Jelínek, which premiered in debut competition at Black Nights Film Festival 2015 (then IFF Cottbus and IFF Febiofest). With her projects, she has attended Short Film Corner at Cannes, East West Talent Lab, MFI and Midpoint Script Development workshops, Ex Oriente 2016 and Eurodoc 2017. In 2015, she founded her own production company Cinémotif Films. She has now several documentaries and feature films in development, e.g. first feature Lost in Paradise by Swiss director Fiona Ziegler (selected for Crossroads Co-Production Forum at TIFF) or her documentary Burned presented at DOK.Forum Munchen 2016.

DOCU TALENTS
Central Bus Station
Czech Republic
Directed by: Tomáš Elšík / Producer: Jitka Kotrlová
Release date: 02/2018

Film synopsis
Yonathan is a guide at one of the most pitiful places in the world – the Central Bus Station. The station has become the centre of a ghetto consisting of refugees from around the world. In the endless maze of corridors, Yonathan reveals his foster home and the culturally diverse inhabitants who have become his new family. The everyday rush and echoes of foreign languages create a contemporary Babel where Yonathan guides those who needs him. The visually experimental documentary shows the station as a character full of stories and people. Despite the diversity, the station is very consistent in its nature. 

Director’s filmography
Tomáš Elšík studied film school in Pisek and from 2009 studies at FAMU, Prague at the editing department. He is a director, DoP and editor of numerous student films, advertising videos and ads for TV. His first documentary, Message from Dement, won an award for best editing work at Famufest 2013. Tomáš participated as an assistant to the tutor Grozjaně at the European workshop Ex Oriente that year. He was also an assistant to Andrij Zafranovič on the movie Honey Nights (dir. Ivo Trajkov) and he is the editor of several documentary TV series for Czech public television.

Producer’s filmography
Frame films was founded in 2013 by Jitka Kotrlová. The company focuses on the development and production of creative audio-visual works. It emphasizes a creative attitude and collective work. It has recently produced the feature Snowing! (dir. Kristina Nedvědová), the documentary Kibera Stories (dir. Martin Páv) and the documentary Central Bus Station (dir. Tomáš Elšík).

D is for Division / orig. title: Muris
Latvia, Czech Republic
Directed by: Davis Simanis / Producer: Guntis Trekteris, Radim Procházka
Release date: 10/2017

Film synopsis
A Latvian woman named Hermine Purina is shown in an archival photograph: she became the first victim of the Soviet invasion of Latvia in 1940 whilst trying to save her son, Voldemärs, with her body. It becomes an inspiration for contemplating film’s boundaries – both geographical and metaphorical. Russians and Latvians sense the import of historical realities in a completely different way. One side associates it with liberation; for the other side, it means the loss of freedom. The well-known Latvian author Davis Simanis produces an explosive testament about tension on the EU’s eastern borders.

Director’s filmography
A Latvian filmmaker and theorist, Davis Simanis has directed numerous poetic documentary films as well as cross-genre features. He also lectures on film theory and history in film schools in Latvia and Finland. His PhD thesis focused on devices of representing history in movies. His own films have been screened and awarded in a number of festivals (IDFA; CPH:DOX; DOK Leipzig and others). His previous film, Escaping Riga (2014), is a docu-fiction on two world-class 20th century geniuses, the British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin and the Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein.

Producer’s filmography
Ego Media’s main activity is the production of fiction and documentaries for local and international audiences as well providing services for foreign productions in Latvia. Recent credits include Close Relations by Vitalij Manskij.
PRP has worked on more than 10 feature films that have received numerous Czech and international awards. The comedic mystery Schmitke premiered in Busan, won Best Debut at Cottbus and two Czech Lions – the country’s main national film award.

Dying for Beginners / orig. title: Umírání pro začátečníky
Czech Republic
Directed by: Bára Kopecká, Marek Bouda / Producer: Bára Kopecká, Veronika Kührová
Release date: 09/2017

Film synopsis
Most people don’t think about death or don’t want to think about it, until something makes them to do so. Usually that “something” is a fatal disease being so immensely close that there’s no escape from it. But there are certain people who think about death from a very young age. They’re seen as strange sufferers of melancholia or are diagnosed with depression.

Director’s filmography
Bára Kopecká graduated from the Editing Department at FAMU, and during her studies she started working on various projects designed especially for Czech TV. She spent several years in North America, where she also devoted herself to film and writing. Bára was previously head of the FAMU Editing Department and now is teaching at FAMU International, working with a number of film and television productions, and producing independent films through her own production company.

Marek Bouda is a film director and screenwriter. He is also dedicated to music composition. He teaches in the Department of Directing at FAMU in Prague. He is actively directing both narrative and documentary projects. Notable from his work is the film Train from 1994 or documents from the Premature Death cycle directed for Czech public television.

Producer’s filmography
In 2009, Bára was hit by a personal earthquake and with it the urgent need to express herself outside the prescribed contracts and target groups. She thought that support from the State Cinematography Fund and thus having a free hand in creation would bring her into a lot of experimental waters. But then she found that film is still a form of communication for her. Bára has always perceived an independent document as an artistic form, not the sum of information. 

Kiruna 2.0
Czech Republic
Directed by: Greta Stocklassa / Producer: Veronika Kührová, Michal Kráčmer
Release date: 07/2018

Film synopsis
The northernmost city of Sweden will be moved three kilometres to the east. Although similar situations have already occurred in history, this case is unique. The city has made difficult situation into a sensation. Media from around the world have started writing about the little city of 15,000 inhabitants above the Arctic Circle, set to become the most modern city in the world.

Director’s filmography
Greta was born in 1993 in Opočno, Czech Republic, and comes from a Czech-Swedish family. She lived in Prague before the family moved to Stockholm in 2005. In 2013, she returned to Prague to study documentary film at FAMU. Identity is the main theme in Greta’s films, which are on the edge of document, fiction and experiment. She works with stylization and fine formal visualization. Her short The Still Life of Vera premiered at IDFF Jihlava and screened at Vision du reel, Neisse Film Fest and DOK.fest München. She was also a finalist for the Magnesia Award for best student film. 

Producer’s filmography
Analog Vision is a brand-new film production and distribution company based in Prague, Czechia, and founded by producers Veronika Kührová and Michal Kráčmer. The fusion brings a company focused on creating and distributing films by young authors from Central Europe, developing new audio-visual forms by combining the worlds of video games and movies, and producing genre films targeting the worldwide market.

Occupation 1968 / orig. title: Okupacia 1968
Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria
Directed by: Evdokia Moskvina, Linda Dombrovszky, Magdalena Szymkow, Marie Elisa Schiedt, Stefan Komandarev
Producer: Peter Kerekes / Release date: 02/2018

Film synopsis
Occupation as occupants see it. Five countries from the Warsaw Pact occupied Czechoslovakia in 1968. Fifty years later, five directors from those countries will shoot short films about the invasion from the point of view of people who took part in it.

Director’s filmography
To get the most diverse views on this complicated topic, we chose one director from each of the former Warsaw Pact countries that participated in the occupation of Czechoslovakia – Russia, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria. The result will be five 26-minute documentaries – five different view from inside the five countries. Mosaic subjective portraits will form a documentary series of five 26 minutes episodes for television, and a 130-minute documentary feature for distribution.

Producer’s filmography
Peter Kerekes Ltd. was established in 1998 by its sole owner, Peter Kerekes, who works as a producer, director and consultant. The company has produced six films so far. Its focus is on creative documentaries which are internationally funded and produced. It cooperates regularly with the public service broadcasters Radio and Television Slovakia (RTVS; formerly Slovak Television) and Czech Television (ČT).