09/09/2024 - The fund has also supported a host of European projects being co-produced by Czech partners, including new works by Marko Škop, Vitaly Mansky and Samuli Valkama

Director Petr Václav (© SSIFF/Jorge Fuembuena)

After the period biopic Il Boemo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Vaclav
film profile], which explored the life and work of opera composer Josef Mysliveček, mentor to a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Czech director Petr Václav turns his attention to Mozart’s youth in Mozart in Paris. Set against the backdrop of 18th-century Paris, the film portrays Mozart’s pursuit of freedom, success and fame as he attempts to break free from his past. With wit and humour, it highlights the composer's relentless ambition, while also depicting his failed attempt to break into the competitive Parisian music scene. Mozart in Paris is a French-Czech co-production, with Václav’s long-time producer, Mimesis Film, handling the Czech side. The Czech Film Fund has supported the project with €139,804 as a minority co-production partner.

In its latest round of minority co-production support, the Czech Film Fund has backed several international projects involving Czech companies. Bionaut Films, a Czech genre production company, is collaborating with Tack Film on Finnish director Samuli Valkama’s The Kidnapping of a President, co-written by John Lundsten. This satirical true-crime black comedy, set in 1930s Finland, revisits a little-known chapter in history. Based on real events, the film tells the absurd and comical story of a group of Finnish military officers who, after a night of drinking in October 1930, decided to kidnap Finland’s first – and already retired – president, Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg. Their plan quickly went awry, as they had to bring along the president’s stubborn wife, Ester. The Kidnapping of a President is a Finnish-Czech-Danish co-production, with filming set to take place in the Czech Republic. The Czech Film Fund has contributed €139,804, and international sales agent LevelK has already boarded the project.

Another supported project is Anna, the upcoming drama by Slovak director Marko Škop, completing his trilogy on the relationships between parents and children, following Eva Nová [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marko Škop
film profile] and Let There Be Light [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marko Škop
interview: Milan Ondrík
film profile]. In Anna, Škop delves into the theme of maternal toxicity, exploring the strained relationship between a young neurologist and her manipulative mother. Škop's company, Artileria, is partnering with Czech production outfit Cinepoint, with the Czech Film Fund contributing €79,000.

Vitaly Mansky's next documentary, Čas do zásahu (Impact Time), is another project receiving support. Mansky, who has previously worked with Czech production house Hypermarket Films (Gorbachev. Heaven [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Putin’s Witnesses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vitaly Mansky
film profile], Under the Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vitaly Mansky
film profile]), examines historical events through the eyes of witnesses and victims. Focusing on the residents of his hometown, Lviv, Impact Time captures their lives as they endure the distant yet omnipresent war, symbolised by the countdown between air-raid sirens and Russian missile strikes. The team behind this Ukrainian-Latvian-Czech co-production is in discussions with a German partner. The Czech Film Fund has granted the project €39,944.

Other projects receiving support include the Slovak-Czech co-production Interest by Hana Hančinová, co-produced by Slovakia’s escadra and Czech firm Cinémotif Films. Based on a real-life case, it follows a young Roma girl who won races in ballerina shoes and examines the subsequent impact of her success on social media. It has secured €79,000 in support. The feature-length animated film Suzanne by Anaïs Caura and Joëlle Oosterlinck, about genius doctor Suzanne Noël, received €91,871. Additionally, Generation, a documentary by David Borenstein offering a village teacher’s perspective on the Russo-Ukrainian War, was granted €39,944, as were the documentaries Queens of Joy by Olga Gibelinda, about three Ukrainian drag queens, The Valley of Widows by Miro Jelok and Katarína Jonisová, and Ash by Oier Plaza Garcia.