Love Me If You Can

Dagmar Smržová / Czech Republic / 2016 / World Premiere / 63 min.

synopsis

In other countries, sexual assistance for disabled people is an established concept, but it is only just getting started in the Czech Republic. Documentarian Dagmar Smržová approaches the subject in a style reminiscent of the films of Erika Hníková. She has chosen three handicapped men and one trained sexual assistant, and follows them in everyday situations, casually asking them various questions. The film explores a subject that, although it is a serious social issue, the public has either ignored or finds controversial. Above all, however, she offers a sensitive look at the intimate lives of people living with disabilities.

“... we cannot choose whether we are born good looking or not so good looking, strong or weak and that’s why we should reach out and help each other with things one can and the other can’t do – including making love…”

biography

Dagmar Smržová (1966) graduated from FAMU in 1992. She has directed episodes of the documentary television series Oko, GEN and 13. komnata. Her documentary War in the Memory of Women (2005) was shown at the 2005 festival in Jihlava. She has explored the life of people with handicaps in several of her past films as well, such as Saving Edwards (2010) about a family raising a child with Edwards syndrome and The Hardest of Choices (2010) about women who choose to give birth to a child knowing that it will have a serious illness.

more about film

director:	Dagmar Smržová
cast:	Tomáš Pik, Tomáš Baxa, Adam Musil, Vladana Augstenová
producer:	Veronika Slámová, Petr Kubica
photography:	Ferdinand Mazurek, Prokop Souček, Tomáš Nováček
editing:	Adéla Špaljová
music:	Eva Javůrková, Jan Čtvrtník
sound:	Michal Janoušek