07/07/2025 - Vojtěch Strakatý’s sophomore feature blends mystery and magical realism, following three young women who discover a small pool on an island with fantastical effects

Nikola Kylarová (left) and Eliška Bašusová in The Other Side of Summer

On an island in the middle of a lake, there lies a small pool that mysteriously churns bubbling, muddy water, sucking in any who dare venture into it. The secrets of this bizarre body of water become the central conceit of The Other Side of Summer [+see also:
interview: Vojtěch Strakatý
film profile], Vojtěch Strakatý’s sophomore feature, after he wrote and directed After Party [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vojtěch Strakatý
film profile] (2024). Combining magical realism, mystery and a pinch of girlhood drama, the film has just enjoyed its world premiere in the Proxima Competition of the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Fifteen-year-old besties Bětka (Lucie Fingerhutová) and Alma (Nikola Kylarová) are enjoying their last days together on a lakeside holiday, supervised by Bětka’s older sister Marie (Eliška Bašusová), whose main responsibility comes to be making sure they don’t sneak out at night with the alcohol haphazardly stored in the shed. Each of the film’s central trio is on her own journey of girl- and womanhood: Bětka hides her self-harm scars, Marie manages her alcohol intake by puking her way through the day, and Alma seeks to forget that her parents intend to send her to the USA. Alma’s curiosity gets the better of her, leading to her discovery of the pool on the island; there, she also encounters Aneta (Sofie Anna Švehlíková), who was drawn into that muddy water one year before and emerged emotionally altered.

With the first half hour of exposition, the story’s attention is split between the young women without an exploration of their individual plights, which regrettably does not allow for as much depth of their emotional arcs as one might like. It is therefore surprising that the hidden lagoon – which acts as a portal to other places – does not feel or play out more like a metaphor to fill in these thematic gaps, such as the transitory period of life that is young adulthood for women or disappearing into the water as a metaphor for transformation, rather than only a device for escapism.

The movie’s strongest narrative element thus becomes the mystery behind the pool, which remains conceptually shrouded for nearly two-thirds of the running time – with lensing by Stanislav Adam, the island’s woods carry a darkness as well as a sense of possibility. The eerie wooded environment is set off by a gently ambient score by Amelie Siba and Kryštof Kříček, simultaneously mirroring the unknown that lies within and the young women’s existential anxieties that emerge. While the conflict that arises from the group’s misadventures fails to build to a satisfying fever pitch through the film, its conclusion is sweet enough to make one smile.

The Other Side of Summer is a Czech-Croatian production staged by Beginner’s Mind, and co-produced by Czech Television, Wolfgang & Dolly and Sleepwalker. Its world sales are managed by ArtHood Entertainment.