14 April 2022
Two Czech Co-productions selected for Cannes
Two Czech Co-productions selected for Cannes
Maksym Nakonechnyi's feature film debut Butterfly Vision is set to world-premiere in the Un Certain Regard competition, a part of Official Selection of Festival de Cannes (17 - 28 May). The film about hope and humanity in the most hopeless conditions, was made in co-production of Ukraine, Czech Republic, Croatia and Sweden with Dagmar Sedláčková of MasterFilm being the co-producer on the Czech side. Moreover, short animated film Scale by Joseph Pierce, co-produced by Jiří Konečný of Czech outfit endorfilm, will be presented in the Semaine de la Critique sidebar in the Special Screenings section.
Butterfly Vision in Un Certain Regard
Butterfly Vision, directed and co-writen by first-time director Maksym Nakonechnyi, tells a compelling story of Lilia, who was for months held as a prisoner of war, and now she struggles to resume her life in Ukraine as a soldier and wife. It is a harsh and surreal tale about a victim who simply refuses to be identified as one.
Butterfly Vision is produced by Yelizaveta Smith and Darya Bassel from Tabor (Ukraine) with Dagmar Sedláčková from MasterFilm (Czech Republic), Anika Juka from 4 Film (Croatia) and Mario Adamson & Sergio C. Ayala from Sisyfos Film Production (Sweden) acting as co-producers. Moreover, Czech Džian Baban, respected scriptwriter and musician, is the author of the music in the film. The international sales are handled by French company Wild Bunch.
The film has been supported by the Czech Film Fund with amount of 108,000 EUR as well as by Ukrainian State Film Agency, Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Eurimages, Croatian Audiovisual Center, Swedish Film Institute, Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and Ukrainian Institute.
It was developed and presented at Terrarium Lab, The Write Retreat residency, Torino Film Lab Extended, Boat Meeting at Molodist IFF, Transylvania Pitch Stop, Connecting Cottbus, BRIDGES pitching, European Work in Progress Cologne, Odesa IFF Work in Progress.
It is yet another Czech minority co-production in the last couple of years to world-premiere in Cannes' Un Certain Regard. In 2017, Györi Kristóf's Out made in Slovak-Hungarian-Czech co-production was introduced in this section and in 2016 French-Belgian-Czech The Dancer by Stéphanie Di Giusto was screened there. The last majority Czech film to appear in Un Certain Regard was Jan Švankmajer's Faust in 1994.
Scale in Semaine de la Critique
Joseph Pierce will present in Semaine de la Critique his long-awaited 14-minute animated film Scale within the Special Screenings section reserved for honorary guests of the sidebar. It tells a story of Will, who is driving along the motorway and loses his sense of scale. As his crippling drug addiction deepens, he struggles to unpick the sequence of events that led to his predicament before he’s lost forever.
The film is produced by Hélène Mitjavile from French Melocoton Films, in co-production with Chris Hees from Bridge Way (UK), Jiří Konečný from endorfilm (CZ) and Jérémie Mazurek from Ozù Productions (BE).
As a project in development, it was pitched Clermont-Ferrand Euro Connection co-production market in 2020 and right after Cannes, it will be screened also at Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The international sales and festival screenings are handled by Salaud Morisset.
Scale also received support from Czech Film Fund, in amount of EUR 49,000, as well as from British Film Institute, Grand Est Region, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes Region, Région Nouvelle Aquitaine, MAGELIS, Charente County Council, CNC, Strasbourg Eurometropole, PROCIREP-ANGOA, Film and Audiovisual Centre of the Wallonie-Brussels Federation, Shelter Prod, Taxshelter.be ING, The Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government.
The last film with Czech participation, which appeared in Semaine de la Critique in Cannes was Czech minority co-production Fugue by Agnieszka Smoczyńska in 2018, and before that in 2016 another animated short film made in Czech co-production called Superbia by Hungarian Luca Tóth played there. Furthermore, in 1998 Czech feature The Bed premiered in Semaine de la Critique and Irena Pavlásková's Time of the Servants screened at the sidebar was awarded a Special Mention of Caméra d'Or in 1990.
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Butterfly Vision
After months of being held as a prisoner of war, Lilia struggles to resume her life in Ukraine as a soldier and wife. Butterfly Vision is a harsh and surreal tale about a victim who simply refuses to be identified as one.