Tereza Nvotová: Redefining norms of gender and power

The Slovak-born, Prague-based Tereza Nvotová has established herself as a filmmaker unafraid to tackle challenging and frequently controversial subjects. From her early work in documentary to her most recent fiction features, her career spans a variety of socially driven projects that explore gender and power.

Nvotová’s debut fiction feature, the Czech-Slovak coproduction Filthy (2017), premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, earning critical recognition for its portrayal of trauma and victimization in the aftermath of rape. The film avoided sensationalism, opting instead for an intimate and non-revenge-driven exploration of the long-term psychological effects on its protagonist, while artistically, the director utilized her documentarian sensibilities to ground the narrative in realism.

Nvotová’s sophomore fiction work, Nightsiren (2022), another collaboration with the Czech production company moloko film and producer Miloš Lochman, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, and marked a departure from the civil realism of Filthy. Combining naturalism with elements of magical realism, Nightsiren examines the interplay of patriarchal oppression, superstition, and gender identity in the setting of a remote mountain village. Here Nvotová extended her thematic exploration of the social structures constraining women, this time through a more stylistic and genre-oriented approach. The film’s fusion of supernatural suspense and dark folklore aligns it with folk horror traditions, while retaining a humanist focus. Nightsiren won the Pardo d’Oro for Best Film in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente competition at Locarno and garnered numerous accolades on the international festival circuit. It has since been released theatrically in South Korea, the US, Poland, Japan, Portugal, and Germany, with further distribution on global streaming platforms.

Before transitioning to fiction, Nvotová cut her teeth on documentaries. Her first film, Take It Jeasy! (2008), a Czech-Slovak coproduction with HBO Europe, explores the Christian cult Triumphal Center of Faith while reflecting on her own fundamentalist upbringing. The Lust for Power (2017), also backed by HBO Europe, examines Slovakia’s postcommunist politics, focusing on the controversial leadership of autocratic premier Vladimír Mečiar. In 2020, she directed a short documentary titled New York City in the Time of COVID-19 for Czech Television, which premiered at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Nvotová’s upcoming fiction film, Father, made in Czech, Slovak and Polish coproduction and supported by the Czech Audiovisual Fund, is slated for a 2025 release. The work was inspired by the real-life tragedy of a father’s memory lapse resulting in the death of his child in an overheated car. Cinematically, it employs a series of single shots in first-person perspective to immerse the audience fully in the father´s emotional devastation, while thematically raising broader questions about the judgment of society and the consequences of tragic mistakes, in addition to challenging traditional perceptions of guilt and empathy. Nvotová describes the film as being also “a strong love story about a marriage that is challenged by the worst thing you could imagine,” with Victoria, Son of Saul, and Elephant serving as inspirations.

Currently, Nvotová is attached as director of the true crime miniseries Our People, which won the top prize at the 2024 Series Mania Co-Pro Pitch Sessions and has been selected as one of the projects for the 2025 Berlinale Co-Pro Series. The series follows the assassination of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová, a crime that deeply impacted Slovak society. Beyond recounting the events, the project explores their emotional and cultural aftermath. It is a collaboration between the Czech production company nutprodukce, the Slovak outfit nutprodukcia, and Czech Television. Nvotová and her screenwriting partner, Barbora Námerová (who cowrote Nvotová’s debut and sophomore fiction features), have also completed the scripts for Convictions, a period miniseries about the life of Jo Langerová. Set in mid-20th century Czechoslovakia, the series portrays Langer, a modern, free-spirited woman, as she confronts the oppressive realities of totalitarianism. The story tackles survival, freedom, and the cost of ideology, and the scripts are ready for preproduction.

In recent years, Nvotová has divided her time between Prague and New York City, pursuing a parallel career in the States. Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, she continues her creative partnership with Námerová, with several ideas in the works that may be her next domestic project. In addition, she has been teaching film directing at FAMU with Námerová, and leading seminars on directing actors at the Television Institute in Brno.

Michal Hogenauer: Minimalism and paranoia in power dynamics

Writer-director Michal Hogenauer tackles themes of manipulation, power dynamics, and the fragility of autonomy. His films often juxtapose internal psychological struggles with controlled external environments, reflecting moral boundaries and social norms. Grounded in real-world contexts, his stories bridge intimate character studies with broader social critique.

The director’s early work includes Children Watching Night Trains (2008), his bachelor’s graduation film from FAMU, which screened at the Angers European First Film Festival. His master’s project, Tambylles (2012), a hybrid of faux documentary and fiction, was showcased in the Cinéfondation section at Cannes. The nearly hourlong film examines the return of a young delinquent to his hometown, critiquing manipulation and the ethical boundaries of documentary filmmaking.

Hogenauer’s feature debut, the English-language psychological thriller A Certain Kind of Silence (2019), premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Shot in Latvia with a predominantly Dutch cast, the film follows Mia, a Czech au pair, as she becomes ensnared in the increasingly oppressive rules of a wealthy Dutch family. Initially a mystery drama, the story evolves into a social commentary on coercion and the erosion of moral boundaries. Inspired by Eastern European au pair experiences and the Stanford Prison Experiment, the film’s formalistic style and unsettling tone evokes the works of Michael Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos.

The filmmaker’s sophomore feature, a minimalist psychological thriller titled Calm in the Canopy (2023), premiered at the Pingyao International Film Festival in China. Continuing Hogenauer’s interest in paranoia and societal tension, the story follows M., a middle-aged businessman whose life unravels after a minor airport confrontation. This incident triggers a spiral of xenophobic paranoia and isolation, reflecting contemporary European anxieties about privilege, immigration, and identity. Much like in A Certain Kind of Silence, here the filmmaker employs a restrained, clinical approach to examine how fragile the veneer of stability is, particularly within privileged social structures.

Around the Fire, Hogenauer’s upcoming feature, which he also penned, is now in development, with principal photography slated for summer 2025. Produced by Xova Film (Czech Republic) and SilvertArt (Slovakia), the project has received Czech Film Fund support and is seeking additional partners from Poland, Germany, and Sweden. The story is set in a secluded summer camp, where Tereza, a 23-year-old camp counselor, admits Jonáš, an unbalanced and manipulative teenager. Their relationship develops a dangerous emotional dynamic, culminating in a love triangle of fragile intimacy, power, and manipulation. Hogenauer draws on personal experiences to capture the intensity and formative relationships of camp life, balancing intimate character studies with psychological tension.

In parallel, the director is developing Bohemia Fraud, a political miniseries about the Czech Republic’s postcommunist process of voucher privatization. The series will blend archival footage with dramatized sequences, adopting a nonlinear storytelling approach inspired by Succession (2018–23), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and The Big Short (2015). The series leans towards satire and black comedy, based on real events and inspired by real politicians. Domestic Shore Points is attached as the production outlet.

Hogenauer is also pursuing other projects he has written. Skinny Bitch is the story of a young woman who joins friends on a summer road trip in their food truck after a breakup, navigating emotional turmoil amid the backdrop of music festivals as the COVID-19 pandemic looms. Last One Turns Off the Light, a chamber drama set in the borderlands, tackles a neighborly conflict that escalates into a Kafkaesque tale of human barriers and malevolence. The project has been presented at Les Arcs, and Hogenauer’s script won the Film Foundation’s award for best unproduced script in 2020.

Beyond his filmmaking career, Hogenauer has worked in the industry as a script consultant and story editor, involved in projects including Vojtěch Strakatý’s After Party (2024) and The Other Side of Summer (2025), as well as Albert Hospodářský’s upcoming film Restless. In addition, as the founder of Cinergy Prague, an educational platform for young filmmakers, he has spent over a decade organizing masterclasses and workshops with international experts, helping to foster emerging Czech talent through knowledge exchange with award-winning filmmakers from abroad.