28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Eyewitness
director: Jiří Havelka
original title: Očitý svědek
country: Czech Republic
year: 2021
running time: 93 min.
synopsis
"A documentary anatomy of mass murder for one monitor and 34 talking heads." These are the words the filmmakers use in the credits to describe their project, which thematises the execution of more than 260 Carpathian Germans, Hungarians and Slovaks by Czechoslovak army soldiers near Přerov in June 1945. The “massacre at Přerov” is made present through a minimalist dramatisation of the interrogation footage of direct participants, eyewitnesses, and others. It is as if the characters of ancient theatre were entering the Zoom “stage” and delivering a tragic message of fear, hatred and disinterest across the chasm of time.
"The important thing is that it's on the National Theatre website. And after watching the docudrama, which is an hour and a half long, one can examine each individual testimony separately, this avoiding any manipulation by the filmmaker, letting each viewer make up their own mind." (Jiří Havelka)
Q&A with Jiří Havelka:
biography
Jiří Havelka (1980) is a playwright, theatre director, actor and film director. His professional career is connected with the VOSTO5 theatre, for which he wrote the plays Pérák and Dechovka. His debut film Owners (2019), had its cinema release in, and he is currently finishing his next feature film Extraordinary Event.more about film
| director: | Jiří Havelka |
| cast: | Robert Mikluš, Saša Rašilov, Jan Bidlas, Filip Rajmont, Igor Orozovič, František Němec, David Prachař, Jiří Štěpnička, Matyáš Řezníček, David Matásek, Vladimír Javorský, Patrik Děrgel, Filip Kaňkovský, Petr Vančura, Radúz Mácha, Šimon Krupa, Vladislav Beneš, Pavel Batěk, Ondřej Pavelka, Anna Fialová, Jindřiška Dudziaková, Veronika Lazorčáková, Pavla Beretová, Magdaléna Borová, Alena Štréblová, Jana Boušková, Martin Pechlát, Luboš Veselý, Tomáš Jeřábek, Ondřej Bauer, Zdeněk Pecha, Sebastian Jacques, Jan Nedbal, Roman Zach |
| producer: | Národní divadlo |
| script: | Jiří Havelka, Marta Ljubková |
| photography: | Martin Bražina |
| editing: | Martin Bražina |
| sound design: | Martin Tvrdý |
