Kingdom of Soap Bubbles

Taťána Marková / Czech Republic / 2025 / World Premiere / 82 min.

synopsis

Today, many laundry soaps in the Czech Republic are referred to as “the soap with the deer on the label.” However, the original product was manufactured by the Schicht factory in Rynoltice near Liberec. In the mid-19th century, Georg Schicht founded a small family business in the basement of a local house, which later grew into a multinational corporation. The progressive company's stability was first tested by World War I, then by the collapse of Austria-Hungary. The greatest upheaval came with the expulsion of the German population after World War II and the confiscation of property. Schicht's descendants are now scattered around the world. Their search for their roots forms the backbone of a documentary that captivatingly reconstructs the history of one company and one family.

“In 2017, I was filming an interview with Constantin Werner in Munich […] Constantin Werner's colourful account of his family history captivated me so much that I became deeply interested in the fate of the Schicht family.” — Taťána Marková

biography

Taťána Marková is a documentary filmmaker and graduate of Theater and Film Studies at Charles University. She focuses on topics from the fields of sociology, spirituality, and history. Together with Natasha Dudinski, she made the television film Revolution Girls (2009), and independently created the documentaries How to Tell Children (2014) and Libussa Unbound (2019).

film details

director:	Taťána Marková
producer:	Filip Kršiak, Jarmila Poláková, Martina Šantavá
script:	Taťána Marková
photography:	Petr Vejslík
editing:	Šárka Sklenářová
music:	Petr Tichý, Anna Romanovská Fliegerová
sound:	Vojtěch Knot
sound design:	Vladimír Chrastil