Contemporary Czech cinematography was represented by movies "Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light" (Tonda, Slávka a kouzelné světlo), "She Came at Night" (Přišla v noci) and "We Have Never Been Modern (Úsvit)".  The festival took place at the Club SAW in Ottawa and admission to all films was free. Each screening was opened by the introduction of Aleš Opatrný,   Deputy Head of Czech Embassy in Ottawa. The Czech Embassy will be looking forward to hosting the "Czech That Film" movie festival again in 2025.

Czech That Film was organized in cooperation with the Czech Centres, the Karel Zeman Museum and the Czech Consulate General in Toronto.

 

*******************************************************************

 

PROGRAMME

Monday, May 13, 5:30 p.m. - Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light (Tonda, Slávka a kouzelné světlo)

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary / 2023 / 82 min, Animation, dir. Filip Pošivač

Czech Film Critics´ Awards for the Audiovisual Achievement and the Newcomer of the Year Award for the director

Eleven-year-old Tony has a unique feature he was born with - he glows. His parents try to keep him at home to protect him from the outside world. Before Christmas, a peculiar girl named Shelly moves into his house. For the first time, Tony has a real friend. He introduces Shelly to the fantasy world inside his pillow bunker and she shows him her secret treasure: a magical torch. With its light, they create amazing pictures and worlds that only they can see. Thus, they embark on an adventurous search for the origin of the mysterious tufts of darkness which suck the sunshine out of their house. Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light is a film about what it's like to be different, it is a story about friendship and imagination, about light and darkness.

 

Monday, May 13, 8:00 p.m. - We Have Never Been Modern (Úsvit)

Czech Republic, Slovakia / 2023 / 117 min, Fiction, dir. Matěj Chlupáček

A married couple, a pregnant former medicine student and a factory director, arrive in 1937 to the Slovak town of Svit in Spiš Region. They were together with other Bata employees tasked by building a new town modeled after Zlín. However, the plan is thwarted by a mysterious discovery on the factory premises. The film deals more generally with the topic of otherness and exclusion, in which Helena Hauptová finds herself as a woman in a purely male and male-dominated environment. In this environment, she is the only one interested in uncovering the truth, while the others come to terms with the story of sabotage suspected by communist elements in the factory. The film has been nominated in 13 categories for the Czech Lion Awards.

Thursday, May 16, 5:30 p.m. - Invention for Destruction (Vynález zkázy)

Czechoslovakia / 1958 / 81 min / complete digital restoration of the animation/sci-fi film, dir.Karel Zeman

In 1958, this film literally circled the globe. It was showered with prizes and became one of the most significant films of the 20th century. Among its many awards, it won the Grand Prix at the World Exposition EXPO 58 in Brussels. It is the first of several Zeman films inspired by the works of Jules Verne. The director tried a new artistic style to bring to life the black and white engravings made by the first illustrators of the Verne books, Édouard Riou and Leon Bennett. The story of the engineer Simon Hart takes place at a time when humanity was driven by a belief in inevitable progress. New inventions emerged like mushrooms after the rain and attracted criminals to abuse them...

Karel Zeman (1910-1989) was a director, artist, animator, screenwriter, and in his time a futuristic filmmaker. Zeman was called the magician of the screen or the Czech Meliès. He made several short, medium, and feature films. The most famous ones are The Journey to the Beginning of Time, Invention for Destruction, The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, and The Stolen Airship. Karel Zeman made Czech cinematography of the 20th century famous worldwide. His filmmaking is still highly regarded today and his techniques are taught in film schools. The aesthetics of Zeman's work influenced a number of world filmmakers, for example, the director, artist, and member of the Monty Python group Terry Gilliam or the directors Tim Burton and John Stevenson.

Thursday, May 16, 7:00 – 7:45 pm   Q&A with special guest:  Linda Zeman - Spaleny

Linda Zeman Spaleny (on the left) is a lawyer in Toronto and together with her mother she works to sustain and expand the legacy of her grandfather’s films around the world. Together, Linda and Ludmila co-produced the documentary The Film Adventurer Karel Zeman (2015) and they co-wrote a detailed biography of Karel Zeman and his films entitled The Magical World of Karel Zeman. Together they have been a major driving force behind the creation and success of the Karel Zeman Muzeum in Prague – see: https://karelzemanmuseum.org/

Thursday, May 16, 8:30 p.m. - She Came at Night (Přišla v noci)

Czech Republic / 2023 / 85 min, Horror - comedy,  dir. Jan Vejnar, Tomáš Pavlíček

Czech Film Critics´ Awards 2023 for the Best Director, Best Actress and the Best Film

When a couple of thirty-somethings let the mother of one of them cross the threshold into their home, they have no idea that they have just entered a kind of purgatory. Their peaceful life is slowly transformed into a chaotic wreck. Valerie, a well-groomed woman in her sixties, is an energetic diva who little by little conquers not only the space of the apartment, but also the minds of its occupants. As the creeping home invasion gains force, certainties are undermined and the boundaries of privacy are demolished. Are moms and mothers-in-law always right? Do they have good intentions toward us? And isn’t that why they are the scariest monsters of them all?