Tiny Lights is a feature-length film set in the early 1990s during a mid-summer day in Czechoslovakia. The main character is a six-year-old girl named Amálka, who lives with her family under one roof in a small town. Genre-wise, the film is an intimate family drama and in no way a children's film. It merely features a main character who just so happens to be a six-year-old.
"Against the backdrop of a heated marital crisis and complicated family relationships, the film captures a moment in the main character’s life where she undergoes a major transformation. We find ourselves in a day where external circumstances break the boundaries of Amálka's world and bring to it a new, fully lived experience complete with darkness and personal crisis. At the end of the day, Amálka becomes someone who has experienced the state of her own dissociation and lost the assurance of immediate childhood, experiencing the world as a place where anything is game", Beata Parkanová said in a statement.
The film is produced by Vojtěch Frič and Přemysl Martinek through LOVE.FRAME (Czech Republic), and coproduced by Peter Veverka through AZYL Productions (Slovakia) and by Ondrej Kulhanek throught Bontonfilm Studios (Czech Republic).
“Beata Parkanová is again traveling to the past and comes with another unique period drama. This time we are at the beginning of the nineties, the age of new freedom for our region, age of promises. The film happens in one day and the story is about the break-up of a young married couple through the eyes of their 6 year old daughter. It is again driven by the dialogues of family members, who are trying to protect the girl from what is happening but contrary to that wish, they cannot protect her from it and get away from her innocence”, Přemysl Martinek, producer of the film, told FNE.
“The film is in production. The shooting is happening just now in the South Moravia Region and Slovakia. We expect the film to be ready next summer. The film was supported by Czech Film Fund (10 m CZK for production), AVF Slovakia (230K EUR) and JFNF (Regional Film Fund - 1,5 m CZK)”, Martinek also said.
The total budget is 1,2 m EUR / 31 m CZK.
Beata Parkanová is a screenwriter, director and novelist. She graduated from the FAMU Film School in 2015. Before starting a film career, she wrote several books, including ones for children. Her first feature film was The Moments (2018) produced by Fog’n’Desire Films, which screened in the East of the West competition at KVIFF 2018. Her second feature The Word (2022) produced by LOVE.FRAME and Bontonfilm Studios, has just premiered and won two awards in Karlovy Vary for Best Director, and another prize for Martin Finger's performance.
Production Information:
Producer:
LOVE.FRAME (Czech Republic)
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Přemysl Martinek)
Coproducers:
AZYL Productions (Slovakia)
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Peter Veverka)
Bontonfilm Studios (Czech Republic)
Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.(Ondrej Kulhanek)
Credits:
DOP: Tomáš Juríček
Editor: Alois Fišárek
Sound: Viktor Krivosudský
Costumes: Josefína Bakošová
Production Designer: Petr Bakoš
Music: Michal Novinski
Cast: Mia Bankó, Elizaveta Maximová, Martin Finger
