09 December 2022
The Czech Film Fund supported 10 out of 33 projects which applied in the latest call dedicated to minority co-productions. The amount of EUR 800 000 (CZK 20 million) was divided between five fiction features, four feature-length documentaries and one animated short. Most of the films are dealing with current socio-political issues such as migration or war in Ukraine.
Fiction Features
The highest amount of EUR 160 000 received the latest project by Agnieszka Holland titled The Green Border taking place on the closely watched Polish-Belorussian border. The film is planned as a co-production of Poland, France, Belgium and the Czech Republic with Šárka Cimbalová of Marlene Film Production, Holland’s regular collaborator (Charlatan, Kafka), acting as the Czech co-producer. The second highest support of EUR 108 000 went to Slovak-Czech 33 Steps, a fiction feature debut by Slovak documentary director Šimon Domček telling a story of a Roma man, who was many years ago attacked, and his life is turned upside down when the aggressor is released from prison. Jiří Konečný of endorfilm is producing on the film on the Czech side.
While producer Karla Stojáková of Axman Production received EUR 100 000 for Austrian-Czech project of Tereza Kotyk called House of Meadows, a portrait of three generations of women from one family, who are trying to find way to each other in the old family house on the Czech-Austrian border which witnessed the history of the 20th century pass by, production company Europe Media Nest won the grant of EUR 92 000 for Endless Borders by Iranian director Abbas Amini, which tells a story of Iranian teacher who gets involved in the migration drama fueled by Taliban coming back to power in Afghanistan. The project is planned a German-Czech co-production.
And last but not least, the support of EUR 40 000 was granted to Fruit Gathering by Aung Phyoe, a co-production Myanmar, France and the Czech Republic, represented by Vít Janeček of D1film. The film tells a story of a young woman, San, who feels inexplicably drawn to her outspoken and content co-worker, Theint, in one of many textile factories in Rangun. The film was presented in 2020 at Locarno’s international co-production platform Open Doors Hub where it won the Open Doors development grant.
Documentary Features
Also, Vitaly Mansky, whose previous films were made in collaboration with Czech production outfit Hypermarket Film (Gorbachev. Heaven, Putin’s Witnesses, Under the Sun), is no stranger to the Czech Film Fund and once again received support, this time in the amount of EUR 92 000 for Palianytsia. Eastern Front, a time-lapse documentary shot by Ukraininan DOP and volunteer paramedic Yevhen Titarenko depicting the life of medical staff near the front in 2014 and 2022. The Czech co-producer of the Latvian-Czech feature is once again Filip Remunda of Hypermarket Film.
The grant of EUR 60 000 was allocated to documentary feature Victims made in co-production of Kyrgyzstan and the Czech Republic, which focuses on one of the biggest corruption scandals in the history of this country. Pandistan is the Czech co-producer of this project.
Two majority Slovak documentary features also succeeded in this call. Bird Hill, directed by Eva Križková and co-produced by Jarmila Poláková (Film & Sociologie), looks into the parallels between the city district of the same and the world of birds and was awarded support of EUR 36 000. Director Martin Kollár wants to capture in Yearbook, co-produced by Klára Tasovská of Somatic Films on the Czech side, life of common people in the Central Europe against the background of global socio-political events. The project received support of 32 000 EUR.
Animated Shorts
Czech well-established production company MAUR film specializing in animation brought to the attention of the Council of the Fund project of a French-Czech animated short film Atomik Tour directed by Bruno Collet, which comes back to the Chernobyl tragedy through the character of young tourist Hugo who at the beginning only sees the trip to the destroyed city as a chance how to feed his Instagram account. The project received the grant of EUR 80 000.
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