A series of three short films by young Czech filmmakers with discussion and the presence of the authors themselves. The dramaturgy of the evening does not have strict boundaries, although one thematic line appears repeatedly in the films: the theme of old age, the passage of time, and ways of coping with the unseen but all the more oppressive weight of loneliness.
THE AGE
The film is a comedic-dramatic tale of an elderly widower, Mr. Kratina, who at 40. Anniversary, which he would have celebrated with his late wife, he orders a companion, Anna. He wants to spend with her a pleasant, but quite honourable evening - with all the trappings of an almost romantic encounter - and thus, at least for a while, banish his long-standing feelings of loneliness and seclusion from the world. The film is an intimate sequence of one night's situations and bittersweet, funny moments of two seemingly completely different people in the space of one small apartment.
Director: Miroslav Kumhala, Viera Pavlíková, Kamila Janovičová, Ondřej Ruml
SOMETHING IS ALWAYS
Alice, the film's main character, finds herself between accepting new life and accepting death. She regularly visits her ailing grandmother, who is still grieving for her son. At the same time, she discovers that she is pregnant and wants to keep the baby, even though she has just broken up with her boyfriend, with whom she was not happy. Outwardly, Alice maintains her composure, her blank stare that seems to look through, somewhere far away, trying at all costs not to betray any emotion. We are taken inside her through surreal dreamlike passages in which Alice herself, and the viewer with her, gradually reveal layers of her confusion and heaviness.
Screenwriter: Marie Topolová
Directed by Marie Topolová, Martin Imrich
Camera: Václav Pavlíček
Starring: Klára Vosecká, Johanna Tesarová, Michael Jiřinec
About Cats and People
Retired Jaroslav never paid much attention to family relationships and preferred to enjoy life on his own. In his old age, loneliness begins to weigh on him, but he rejects his own faults. He tries to build a warmer relationship at least with his granddaughter Andrea, who brings an initially unwanted companion into his life - a tabby cat.
Director/screenwriter: Lenka Drncová
Camera: Filip Vaněk
Starring: Dušan Sitek, Robert Urban, Gabriela Farr, Kamila Janovičová, Adéla Laštovková, Eliška Laštovková
Czech Republic, 2025, 90 min., CZ
After the screening of all films, there will be a discussion with the filmmakers.
Programme subject to change.
