The series opens on Thursday 4 February 2010 at 19.15 at the Danish Film Institute (Cinemateket) with the stunning drama Želary introduced by the charismatic Czech actress Aňa Geislerová. The renowned Czech filmmaker Petr Zelenka will present his newest film The Karamazovs on Sunday 7 February 2010 at 16.45 and in the following debate he will discuss the current situation of the Czech film industry. At both events, the Czech Embassy will offer a glass of Czech beer.

Moreover, the series presents Saša Gedeon´s film Return of the Idiot, also inspired by Dostoyevsky´s works, another successful project by Oscar-winning duo JanSvěrák and Zdeněk Svěrák – Empties, and the best of Czech documentary production – René by Helena Třeštíková, Citizen Havel byPavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek or the provocative Czech Dream by Filip Remunda and Vít Klusák. Last, but not least, the visually original film for the whole family Who´s Afraid of the WolfbyMaria Procházková will be shown.

‘CZECH’ THEM OUT’ series has been arranged by the Danish Film Institute (Cinemateket), the Czech Film Center, Czech Airlines and the Czech Embassy in Copenhagen. A selection of films will continue at the Café biografen in Odense and Øst for Paradis in Åarhus.

Festival dates:

4 – 21 February 2010 – Danish Film Institute (Cinemateket) in Copenhagen (www.cinemateket.dk)
18 – 22 February 2010 – Café biografen in Odense (www.cafebio.dk)
25 February – 3 March 2010 – Øst for Paradis in Århus (www.paradisbio.dk)

For more information about Czech films please see: www.filmcenter.cz

Film checklist:

Czech Dream
(Czech Republic, 2004, 87 min., directors: Filip Remunda, Vít Klusák, English subtitles)

The film offers a humorous and provocative look at the growing consumer culture in the Czech society. The directors, Filip Remunda and Vít Klusák, set out to explore the psychological and manipulative powers of consumerism by creating an advertising campaign for fictitious big-box mega-market. The campaign involved television and radio spots, billboards and flyers promoting Czech Dream. Despite the advertisements proclaimed: Don't go, Don't rush, Don't spend, over 4,000 people turned up on the 'opening day'. On the 31 May 2003, they arrived at a green field where, instead of a hypermarket, they found just the dream hypermarket's façade.

The Karamazovs
(Czech Republic, Poland, 2008, 100 min., director: Petr Zelenka, English subtitles)

A theatre company from Prague arrives in Cracow to present a stage adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov at the city’s alternative drama festival; the production is to be staged in an unusual venue – the local steelworks. As rehearsals get under way, we follow not only the emotional story examining issues of faith, immortality and the salvation of the human soul, but also the relationships within the acting troupe itself, which strangely reflect Dostoevsky’s “great” themes. The stage drama is transferred to the real world when a tragedy occurs during rehearsal involving one of the spectators... The film received the Czech Lion award for the Best Film and the Best Direction and the Award of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI) at the IFF in Karlovy Vary in 2008.

Who´s Afraid of the Wolf
(Czech Republic, 2008, 95 min., director: Maria Procházková, English subtitles)

A visually original film starring child actress Dorotka Dědková combines elements of a family film, children horror and psychological story.

Cleverly riffing on Little Red Riding Hood, this charming drama for all ages looks at serious family matters from the perspective of a 6-year-old girl. The Prague-set tale centers on sensitive moppet Terezka (Dorotka Dědková), who becomes obsessed with whether her mother is really her mother, little suspecting the altogether different secret surrounding her parentage. The film represented the Czech Republic at Berlinale Film Festival 2009. 

Return of the Idiot
(Czech Republic, 1999, 99 min., director: Saša Gedeon, English subtitles)

Though inspired by the hero of Dostoevsky's The Idiot, the plot of the second feature film by Saša Gedeon has been transferred to the recent past. The protagonist, a sincere young man named František, becomes a catalyst for interpersonal relationships involving two families. He has been recently released form a psychiatric hospital and is trying to return to normal life. Thanks to his innocence of the 'mature' world, he uncovers the minor hypocrisies and lies contained in the everyday dealings of his new friends and his relatives. The film received the Czech Lion award in five categories, numerous international awards and was nominated for the European Academy Award for the Best Script.

Citizen Havel
(Czech Republic, USA, 2008, 120 min., directors: Pavel Koutecký, Miroslav Janek, English subtitles)

The documentary takes a look behind the scenes at the political and private dramas of Václav Havel’s presidential tenure. Pavel Koutecký began shooting the film in 1992 – at a time when Havel was considering his second candidacy for the presidential office. A unique, intimate, sensitive and cultivated piece; it reveals not only a different side of one of key figures in modern Czech history, but it also gives the viewer a greater insight into the modern history of the Czech Republic. The film received numerous awards at international film festivals and was nominated to Prix Arte by the European Film Academy in 2008.

René
(Czech Republic, 2008, 83 min., director: Helena Třeštíková, English subtitles)

The film tells the incredible story of a young man accompanied by a film camera from the age of eighteen on his life’s journey between prisons and short intermezzos outside. After another eighteen years, René is a 36-year-old man, an unlikely writer, a seriously ill patient, and unfortunately still an incorrigible criminal. The story of René “Czech Villon” unfolds against the backdrop of significant political changes in Central Europe whose reflections remain omnipresent in the film. René’s history opens in a prison full of socialist banners, continues during the “Velvet Revolution” and finds him back in prison at the time of the Czech Republic joining the EU. The film was awardedPrix Arte by the European Film Academy in 2008.

Empties
(Czech Republic, Great Britain, 2007, 104 min., director: Jan Svěrák, English subtitles)

Anotherjoint project by Oscar-winning duo Jan Svěrák and Zdeněk Svěrák, Empties, is an intelligent comedy about an ageing man for whom going into retirement means a challenge to finally come of age.Czech literature teacher Josef Tkaloun, who is past retirement age, realises one day that he no longer understands his pupils, and so he quits... dramatically. What he does not predict is that in doing this he will lose his place in the society. He finds himself isolated in his city flat with his wife Eliška. Not knowing how to deal with this new situation, Josef tries to find a way out. After a few vain attempts at finding a decent job, he accepts a position at a refundable bottles counter in the local supermarket. In this seemingly inhospitable place, he solves what had been the root of his unhappiness and finally finds his way back to his wife.

Želary
(Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, 2003, 149 min., director: Ondřej Trojan, English subtitles)

The film based on an autobiographical prose by Květa Legátová tells the story of a clash between two different worlds and two different people. During the German occupation, a medical student Eliška involved in the Resistance is forced to go into hiding in an isolated mountain village under the protection of the rugged Joza. As Eliška adjusts to her new life, she and Joza begin to form an extraordinary relationship A dramatic story filled with unexpected twists was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003.

For more information about Czech films please see:www.filmcenter.cz