The 16th DAYS OF EUROPEAN FILM will open with the Romanian film Boogie (directed by Radu Muntean, 2008) in Světozor theatre in Prague on 16 April 2009.

The story of the film takes place on the coast of Black Sea and reveals all the things that can happen as a result of a coincidental meeting of former high school classmates and the main male character spending a vacation with his family there.

With his previous films (Furia, Fury, 2002; Hartia va fi albastra, The Paper Will Be Blue, 2006), the director has already become one of the Romanian creators who are increasingly successful on a wider international scale.

His films are successfully screened at all prestigious festivals.

In the following days, the audience in Světozor and Lucerna theatres will be able to watch 29 feature films. In the section dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the fall of the iron curtain, 5 documentary films will be screened. The Academy of Performing Arts, the Film Academy of Miroslav Ondricek and the Secondary and Tertiary Vocational School in Písek will traditionally present a block of short films, and we will also be able to watch a selection from the FRESHFILMFEST festival.

The Prague part of DEF will close in Světozor theatre as well, with the film Paris 36 (Faubourg 36, dir. by Christophe Barratier, 2007) on 23 April. After the worldwide success of his previous film The Chorus (Les Choristes, 2004), the story of his new film will take us to the Paris of the revolutionary changes of the year 1936. The film Paris 36 has been now nominated in several categories for the César Awards in France. Besides Germany and France, the Czech Republic also co-produced this film. The film was also shot in Prague locations and one of the roles is played by Pierre Richard.

From Prague, the festival will move to Brno and Olomouc. Events called Regional Echoes will take place in Uherské Hradiště, Boskovice and Veselí nad Moravou where we will offer a selection from the DEF programme.

All films will be screened in their original languages (most with English subtitles) and will be simultaneously translated into Czech through headphones.

You can also find detailed information on the festival on the brand new website http://www.eurofilmfest.cz/.

This year, you can also find DEF on the official Facebook for the first time.

You can look forward to an original jingle of the festival, which was produced for DEF by the Bistro films company and the duo of directors called Mods. Pavel Trávníček and Jan Přeučil will be seen in roles, in which you have certainly never seen them before.

All the other detailed information on films, the interesting accompanying events, a seminar, and the section on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the iron curtain will be available at the main press conference, which will take place on 26 March at 10.00 a.m. in Černín Palace. At this press conference, accreditation forms, bilingual catalogues with a complete programme of the screenings and the list of the festival's guests will also be made available to journalists.

The festival takes place under the auspices of Václav Jehlička, the Czech Culture Minister; the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic; Pavel Bém, Lord Mayor of Prague; Roman Onderka, Lord Mayor of Brno; and Martin Novotný, Lord Mayor of Olomouc.

The festival is organized by the embassies and cultural institutes of the current and future member states of the European Union and the Capital City of Prague with support from the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic, the Czech Ministry of Culture, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Brno Cultural Centre and Pastiche Filmz.

The general partner is FILM+; the main media partner is Czech Radio - Radiožurnál; the media partners are the Óčko TV station, the Express radio station, Houser, Respekt, E15 and Student Agency.

On behalf of the festival team

Jana Gabrielová

Contacts:

Mail address: Národní 28, Praha 1, 110 00

Tel.:+420 602 273 946

Fax: 221 105 303

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E-mail - for journalists: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

www. eurofilmfest.cz