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FINÁLE PLZEŇ 2021

An anatomy of the latest in Czech cinema on show at Finále Plzeň

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- Festival favourites, upcoming premieres and Czech co-productions will represent the 2020-2021 season of domestic cinema

An anatomy of the latest in Czech cinema on show at Finále Plzeň
Saving One Who Was Dead by Václav Kadrnka

Czech productions from 2020 and 2021 will be screened at Finále Plzeň, the annual showcase for domestic cinema. Michaela Pavlátová’s animated drama My Sunny Maad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michaela Pavlátová
film profile
]
will open the 34th edition of the festival, which hosts five competition sections. Olmo Omerzu’s Bird Atlas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olmo Omerzu
film profile
]
, Jan Foukal’s Two Ships [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan Foukal
film profile
]
, Václav Kadrnka’s Saving One Who Was Dead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Václav Kadrnka
film profile
]
and Šimon Holý’s Mirrors in the Dark [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Šimon Holý
film profile
]
will be competing in the Feature Live Action or Animated Film Competition right after their Karlovy Vary world premieres. They will be joined by the Golden Bear-winning Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile
]
, by Radu Jude, and Bohdan Sláma’s Shadow Country [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, the best film of 2020 according to Czech film critics (read the news). Documentary films including  the road movie Once Upon a Time in Poland [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, by Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda; Athanor – The Alchemical Furnace [+see also:
trailer
interview: Adam Oľha
film profile
]
by Adam Olha and Jan Danhel; and Jindřich Andrš’s A New Shift [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
will face strong competition from domestic box-office hit Caught in the Net, directed by Barbora Chalupová and Vít Klusák (read the news). The other competitive sections are dedicated to feature and miniseries television production, episodic and online production, and student films.  

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Traditionally, Finále Plzeň brings a sneak peek of new films in a series of domestic avant-premieres. Among them will be Peter Kerekes’s docudrama 107 Mothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Peter Kerekes
film profile
]
, which has just won the Award for Best Screenplay in the Orizzonti sidebar at the Venice Film Festival; the Berlinale-premiered co-production Je Suis Karl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Schwochow
film profile
]
, directed by Christian Schwochow; the animated road movie Even Mice Belong in Heaven [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, by Jan Bubeníček and Denisa Grimmová; Jan P. Matuszyński’s drama Leave No Traces [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan P Matuszyński
film profile
]
and Bogdan George Apetri’s Unidentified [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. Co-production projects will have their own special section, which will this year introduce the epic family fairytale Dragon Princess; a thriller based on the Tony-winning play Oslo directed by Bartlett Sher; The Year Before the War [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dāvis Sīmanis
film profile
]
, a historical mystification directed by Dāvis Sīmanis; and Šarūnas Bartas’ drama In the Dusk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sharunas Bartas
film profile
]

The cinemas of two European countries will be in the festival's focus: Germany and Poland. The selection of Polish films consists mainly of recent award-winning oeuvres, which include Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bartosz Bielenia
interview: Jan Komasa
film profile
]
, Piotr Domalewski’s I Never Cry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Piotr Domalewski
film profile
]
and Marius Wilczynski’s animated, semi-autobiographical drama Kill It and Leave This Town [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mariusz Wilczyński
film profile
]
. German cinema will be represented by Eline Gehring’s Nico [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
, which follows a German-Persian nurse and the fallout of a xenophobic attack perpetrated against her; Joséphine Demerliac’s The Sun is Burning, a drama about a generation in living in a society where globalisation and the social media revolution have severely disrupted our models of love; and Maxim Melnyk’s documentary Schönborn.

The 34th edition of Finále Plzeň runs from 24-29 September, and the full line-up is available here.

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