Czech Joy

Archival footage and photographs, comical dramatised sketches and amateur theatre directed by David Vávra form the basis of Pavel Štingl’s collage-style documentary, which, in the spirit of poetism, pays tribute to the only Czech winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The film visits the places where Jaroslav Seifert lived and worked, delving into his journalistic writings, poems and personal papers. It deals with his childhood in Žižkov, anarchist adolescence, break with the Communist Party and signing of Charter 77. From these individual fragments, a multifaceted portrait emerges of a creative spirit who refused to be bound by either party or aesthetic dogmas.“Seifert was a romantic, which is why his wife was jealous of the characters who held the promise of a kiss.”

What mark does a life devoted to art leave on family relationships? Blanka Kulová is editing a film about her father, Vlastimil Kula, a well-known Czech photographer of nudes and erotic images, whose monograph was published by the renowned Taschen publishing house. However, rather than a celebratory portrait of the artist, the result is an intimate confrontation between father and daughter. In candid conversations, they revisit their parents’ divorce, painful childhood memories and a sense of abandonment that Blanka shares with her younger siblings. Despite their recriminations and the long-standing misunderstandings between them, there is no shortage of humour, mutual affection or a willingness to find a way back to one another. Most of the film is set in a country cottage, which Kula is gradually renovating; here he photographs young models and reflects on his own work. However, his former fame is fading, and, paradoxically, it is his daughter who helps him find a curator for a new exhibition. The film unflinchingly reveals the conflict between artistic self-realisation and responsibility towards loved ones. At the same time, it captures the delicate process of two people growing closer as they attempt to understand their shared past. “I am an artist – not an ordinary person.”

A triple jump on ice skates lasts just a few seconds, but requires years of physical training and mental isolation. This time-lapse portrait of Barbora Vránková, three-time Czech figure skating champion, captures a pivotal period in her life between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. Her days are filled with online lessons, physiotherapy sessions and, above all, a strict training regimen. The camera, which is synced with the protagonist’s movements, takes us straight onto the ice, where the scraping of blades and the rumble of pop-music hits blend with the shouts of the coaches. Without any artificial pathos, the film follows how, fall after fall, the young athlete works her way towards precision on the ice and her own autonomy off it. “For me, sound has never been merely an accompaniment to the image. Gradually, it has also become a path to the themes the film explores: performance, expectations, and the search for one’s own place in a world that constantly judges people by their results.” — Eliška Cílková Andršová, dok.revue