The Painted Bird

Venezia 76

Czech Republic, Ukraine, Slovakia 2019 / 169 min
Directed by: Václav Marhoul
Produced by: Václav Marhoul / Silver Screen (CZ)
Co-produced by: Directory Films (UA), PubRes (SK), Czech Television (CZ), Radio and Television Slovakia (SK), Jaroslav & Milada Kučerovi (CZ), Innogy (CZ), Richard Kaucký (CZ)
Cast: Petr Kotlár, Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgaard, Udo Kier, Julian Sands, Barry Pepper, Jitka Čvančarová... (full list)

Synopsis:
The film follows the journey of The Boy, entrusted by his persecuted parents to an elderly foster mother. The old woman soon dies and the Boy is on his own, wandering through the country-side, from village to farmhouse. As he struggles for survival, The Boy suffers through extraordinary brutality meted out by the ignorant, superstitious peasants and he witnesses the terrifying violence of the efficient, ruthless soldiers, both Russian and German.

When the war ends, The Boy has been changed, forever.

World Premiere:
TUE 09/03 | 16:45 | Sala Grande
Other screenings

PRESS KIT
INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR

World Sales
Celluloid Dreams / Hengameh Panahi
info@celluloid-dreams.com

Festivals
Celluloid Dreams / Pascale Ramonda
pascale@pascaleramonda.com

SH_T HAPPENS

Orizzonti

Czech Republic, Slovakia, France 2019 / 13 min
Directed by: Dávid Štumpf, Michaela Mihályi
Produced by: Peter Badač / BFILM.cz (CZ)
Co-produced by: BFILM (SK), Bagan Films (FR), FAMU (CZ)
(full list)

Synopsis:
An apartment building full of self centered inhabitants. Utterly exhausted caretaker and his sexually frustrated wife. Widowed deer drowning his sorrows in loads of alcohol... While trying to cope with their problems, they find themselves in a hard to solve triangle asking for absurd and irrational solutions. The consequences can easily become permanent, sometimes maybe too permanent. The film is a loose adaptation of a well-known biblical story while transforming it into an contemporary ironic narrative about how the world sometimes works.

World Premiere:
THU 08/29 | 16:30 | PalaBiennale
Other screenings

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World Sales
Next Film Distribution / Anthony Trihan
anthony@nextfilmdistribution.com

Festivals
BFILM / Alexandra Gabrižová
bfilm@bfilm.sk

Extase

Venice Classics

Czechoslovakia 1932 / 90 min
Directed by: Gustav Machatý
Produced by: Elektafilm, Gustav Machatý

Synopsis:
Eva, the daughter of a landowner, marries the well-off but many years older Emil Jermann. Upon returning from the marriage ceremony to their luxurious Prague apartment she realizes her mistake: her husband shows no interest in her as a woman. The sensitive girl suffers from his cold and bachelor's meticulousness so much that she returns to her father's estate and requests a divorce on grounds of insuperable revulsion. While bathing in the pond Eva meets Adam, a young civil engineer working close by on a highway construction site. The man is the exact opposite of her husband: though he looks robust, he acts gently. During a night-time storm Eva goes after him to his house and becomes his lover. Only now does she know the passion of love. Her husband receives a court dispatch and sets off after Eva and beseeches her, to no avail, to return. On the way back he comes across Adam and realizes who he is. Both men are staying in a village inn where Eva comes to visit Adam. The husband commits suicide in his room. His death comes between the lovers. Adam returns to his work, Eva gives birth to a child.

Screenings
PRESS BOOK

Sales and Festivals
Národní filmový archiv, Prague / Tomáš Žůrek
tomas.zurek@nfa.cz