We are proud to announce the Cannes Market Premiere of our films:
BARDSONGS by Sander Francken - musical triptych of filmed folktales
A WALK WORTHWHILE by Milos Forman - a legendary Czech 'jazz opera'
TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE starring Phillippe Noiret
LITTLE KNIGHTS - children adventure comedy
Marta Lamperova will be very pleased to meet you between the 13th-20th of May
and welcome you at our stand in Cannes to discuss our titles in detail.
You can find us at the Czech/Slovak Pavilion in Riviera Village International
Looking forward to meeting you in Cannes!
Please find enclosed our lineup and contact us to schedule a meeting.
Best wishes,
Marta Lamperova
BARDSONGS Cannes Market Premiere
(The Netherlands, musical, 2010, 94min)
by Sander Francken
Synopsis
Dutch filmmaker Sander Francken directed the musical feature film BARDSONGS in India and Mali.
At the basis of this film are three folk tales from Rajasthan, Western Africa and Ladakh, turned to songs by musical celebrities from those regions and interpreted by local actors who knew these tales from their youth. The film focuses on the similarities between three totally different worlds:
The world of Sahir, whose father refuses to pass judgement on his fate... the world of Bouba, a pupil at a Koran school who has to find the largest part of all knowledge... and the world of Sonam, who has to sell his dzo (a crossbreed between a yak and a cow) and therefore journeys to town through the Himalayas with his daughter...
More information:
www.bardsongs.com
http://vimeo.com/10772679
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bnINOBB-0Q
TWOSOME Market Premiere
(Czech republic, Road movie, 2010, 89min)
by Jaroslav Fuit
Synopsis
Young couple lives together for 5 years and experiences first "fatigue" of the relationship. Michal would probably like to take it further to next level, Veronika hesitates between settling down and enjoying still some freedom.
In order to move things in the positive way, Michal surprises Veronika by booking a holiday in Sweden. Of course, everything goes wrong, and they end up stuck in foreign country without any plan what to do next. At that moment, they meet Simon, young traveler who seems to know his ways around Nordic countries very well. He is quite an opposite of serious Michal - easy going, funny, seemingly lucky in everything he does. Yet, more and more, it becomes visible that his ways are not always clean and legal, and there is more than one mystery in stories he tells about himself. Veronika doesn't seem to mind and becomes quite charmed by the merry side of his personality. This encounter with Šimon, an adventurer and a little thief permanently on the road, gives their lives and their relationship an unexpected reflection and moves them on.
A WALK WORTHWHILE INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE at ROTTERDAM 2010
(Czech republic, cinematographic registration, 2009, 85 min)
by Milos Forman
Synopsis
Registration by Milos Forman of the exuberant version that he made with his son Petr in 2007 of the legendary Czech 'jazz opera' A Walk Worthwhile from 1965. Forman's other son Matej designed the sets in the style of the 1960s.
A Walk Worthwhile is a farcical allegory about the values of capitalism in 1965. The young couple Uli and Vanilla decide to get divorced. Soon after, they hear that their child is to inherit one million pounds from Vanilla's aunt from Liverpool. But: they don't have a child and above all the aunt is not dead at all.
Milos Forman returns to his roots with this adaptation of the opera: Forman already made a television version of the original piece in 1966; it was one of his first projects.
TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE/UNE SOLITUDE TROP BRUYANTE starring Phillippe Noiret
(France, Czech republic, film adaptation, comedy, 2010, 110 min)
by Vera Cais
Synopsis
The film adaptation of a book Too Loud a Solidute by Bohumil Hrabal is about the physical destruction of books - "a crime against humanity."
The narrator Hanta operates a hydraulic press, which makes huge cubes of waste paper. Rare books perish in his machine, "I am nothing but a refined butcher," he thinks. Occasionally he rescues and reads precious old books - as Hrabal himself, when he worked at a wastepaper collection point.
"It is by and from books that I've learned that the heavens are not humane, neither the heavens nor any man with a head on his shoulders - it's not that men don't wish to be humane, it just goes against common sense." Because Hanta works slowly, he is replaced by two vigorous young men...
DEVIL'S TOWN
(Black comedy | Serbia, 2009, 82 min.)
by Vladimir Paskaljevic
Trieste, Alpe Adria Cinema 2010 - First Prize / Palm Springs IFF 2010
- Honorable Mention of the Jury / Athens IFF, Panorama of European
Films - 2009 FIPRESCI Award
Synopsis
Devil's Town is a black comedy about modern Belgrade. The lives of
various characters crosses on the day famous Serbian tennis players
compete in an important tournament. A poor girl who tries to get hold
of tennis equipment at any price, a businessman who can't avoid corruption, a teenage bimbo looking for a rich
husband, a wealthy teenager who can't buy love, rich prostitutes who pretend they are happy, a taxi driver who
blames the rest of the world for his personal misfortune.
It is a film about people driven only by their basic needs, deep instincts, obsessions, ambitions, fears and
frustrations. Is their moral crisis merely a consequence of the hard times they have to live through, or is it the other
way round?
More information:
http://www.filmeurope.eu/films/view/64
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32rFL9-lLv0
LITTLE KNIGHTS
(Czech republic, children film, 2009, 98 min)
by Karel Janak
Synopsis
Little Knights' Tale adventure comedy brings us to the dark recesses of a mighty castle and a nearby manor in close neighborhood, surrounded by a deep forest. The peaceful living is disturbed by an unexpected event. Martin, a virtuous knight and a caring father of five children, is denounced for witchcraft and plundering expeditions. And so he departs for the royal court to defend his honor, leaving the fortress in the hands of his eldest son Peter and his siblings. He does not have the faintest idea that the denunciation was the work of his envious, greedy and totally despicable neighbor Albrecht the Bloody Nose who wants nothing else but to take possession of the land. It seems the evil is close to victory. But Albrecht soon realises that outwitting a bunch of little knights is sometimes harder than defeating an army... Will the kids succeed in defeating a much stronger enemy?
More information:
TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1BMo1HtDoQ&feature=player_embedded
FOXES World Premiere at Venice IFF 2009
(Slovakia, Ireland, Czech republic, drama, 2009, 83min)
by Mira Fornay
Synopsis
Alzbeta, a 23-year-old au pair from Slovakia, decides to stay in Dublin on her own, refusing help from both, the expat community and even her own family. When she does so, dark moments from her past, linked with her older sister Tina and Tina's Irish fiancé Steve, gradually reveal the truth about the two sisters and the real reason they seek to create a new home abroad. Both Alzbeta and Tina are in a vicious circle that creates deep emotional distance and tension between them, and the only way out is to come to terms with what has happened in the past. Foxes is a story about sisterly jealousy, dependency, little secrets and lies, but also about sisterly love and mainly reconciliation, which brings hope for a fresh start...
More information:
http://www.filmeurope.eu/films/view/58
http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/program/20851212030-listicky-foxes.html?deid=3229
TRAILER: http://iopost.cz/web/projekty2.php?skupina=1&projekt=106
MUZIKA/ THE MUSIC
(by Juraj Nvota, Slovakia, Germany 2008, black comedy)
Synopsis
A black comedy about a man who hoped that music would help him get out of the frying pan, but instead falls into the fire. A story about his contemporaries, friends, desires and dreams, about freedom, which was at the turn of the 1980s one of the most precious, best-guarded and least accessible values in former Czechoslovakia. Three musicians decide to break into show business at any price.
The film is set in a small Slovak town in the late 1970s and early 1980s and tells the story of young Martin, who loves music, especially jazz. His in-laws are irritated by his practice sessions on the saxophone: jazz leaves them cold. Even Martin's colleagues from the water purification plant where he works as a service engineer are unresponsive to his playing and, in their sneaky reports about him, they describe him as someone who only appreciates Western music. Martin starts earning a bit on the side in a local band which performs mostly middle-of-the-road stuff. More than simply a tale about the pursuit of a musical career, the film offers an intimate account of a man to whom music offers the chance to find personal freedom.
Contact
Film Europe
Marta Lamperova
Head of Sales and Development
Cell CZ: +420 739 592 040
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