18-03-2009

Nellis to shoot Lidice in autumn

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    Director Alice Nellis's Lidice, a 1942 big-budget Czech war drama, will begin shooting in autumn.

    The screenplay is by historian Zdeněk Mahler. The cast includes Karel Roden and Zuzana Bydžovská, recent Czech Lion award winner, Ivan Trojan, Martha Issová and Milan Kňažko.

    Lidice, a true story about a war massacre in a Czech village that was exterminated and burnt by Nazis after assasination of Reinhard Heydrich in June 1942, will be one the most expensive Czech movie of 2009 with a budget of almost CZK 70 million (€2.6 million).

    One third of the amount, a record CZK 20 million, is through a grant provided by Czech State Fund for cinematography.

    "The theme of this movie is very serious, and we believe that such story should be told as a movie," says producer Adam Dvořák, general director of Bioscop company (www.bioscop.cz), who co-producing Lidice with Czech Television (www.ceskatelevize.cz) and the Czech Ministry of Defence (www.army.cz), that should provide historical weapons and army device, film production informed. After negotiations of recent Berlinale festival, Poland should co-produce Lidice as well.

    The story of the only man that survive the massacre of Lidice is being compared to Polish drama Katyn by Ardzej Wajda. Lidice will be released in September/October 2010.

    Bioscop

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