Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Ivan Ostrochovský (Servants, 107 Mothers) prepares a project called Heroiv Pratsi, which is based on author’s own experience, and it is focused on a story of a young boy and thousands of other people sheltering in the subway during the Russian attack on Ukraine. The Czech Film Fund supported the project, which is produced by Cinémotif Films, with the highest amount in this call, EUR 76,000.

Another three projects supported in this call are also related to the Russian military attack on Ukraine. Experienced documentary filmmaker Filip Remunda (Once Upon a Time in Poland, Czech Dream) prepares A Man in Russia (Člověk v Rusku) under the wings of his own Hypermarket Film. Remunda’s film examines the protests against the Russian government and Russian state police by Russian citizens and how the Russian opposition is suppressed in general.

War also affects industries such as sport. While Oksana Syhareva takes us inside the Kharkiv controversial sports school, whose functioning was drastically affected by the Russian invasion, in Up in the Air (FILM KOLEKTIV received support of EUR 44,000 for production), Eliška Cílková follows a young Czech figure skater whose dream to become an elite athlete is overshadowed by the presence of a Russian coach at her training sessions. Rotation (Rotace), which is produced by nutprodukce, was granted EUR 48,000 for production.

The Council of the Czech Film Fund also backed projects that address the environmental crisis and its solutions. Tomáš Elšík's environmental essay, Ent, received the amount of EUR 48,000. The project, produced by Frame Films, explores the philosophical-scientific approach telling that humans are not the centre but part of a complex environmental system. Established documentarist Andrea Culková (H*ART ON, Grief) explores European civil society associations working on the climate crisis. For Citizen’s Assembly, which was backed with EUR 48,000, the director re-joins forces with company Duracfilm.

Civic activism is also the theme for Amálie Kolářová, whose debut One Million Moments (Milion chvilek) is produced by endorfilm. The project is dedicated to the phenomenon of the civic movement, which a few years ago represented an essential impulse for the birth of individual political engagement of many people in the Czech Republic and managed to bring hundreds of thousands of people to anti-government demonstrations. The Council supported the film with EUR 32,000.

One of the most famous Czech poets and also a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Jaroslav Seifert, will be the subject of a documentary by Pavel Štingl (The Sarcophagus, Courage). Being a Poet (Býti básníkem) is produced by Evolution films at it was granted EUR 56,000. The project called Bohemian Identity (supported with EUR 52,000) also follows the theme of art. Based on a work by Jakub Skalický and produced by Mowshe, the documentary will focus on hundred years of Czech design.

Last but not least, the CFF supported a documentary essay, La Reine, which focuses on principles of lives of people that collide at the site of a traditional lavender distillation. Moloko film and debut director Nikola Klinger received the amount of EUR 16,000 for production.