13/03/2007

It takes them an average of five and a half years to reappear with a project but every time writer-actor Zdenek Sverák and director Jan Sverák resurface it is with a bang.

Their new film Empties [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which opened in Czech theatres on March 8, has broken the all-time opening weekend box office record for a domestic film with 107,362 admissions.

The previous record of 103,364 admissions fittingly belonged to the other local hit of the year, Jirí Menzel’s I Served the King of England [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. According to provisional figures by the Union of Film Distributors, the Sveráks’ film also broke the record for a single day’s attendance when it was seen by 41,955 filmgoers last Saturday.

Zdenek, who once again scripted a film directed by son Jan, plays Josef, a retired teacher who decides to take on a job in a supermarket to confront the ghosts of old age. “Since the film deals with such an unpopular theme like old age I was afraid that especially young people would stay away”, said Jan Sverák. “I am happy that I was so wrong".

Since 1991, the Sveráks have worked on three other films together, all of them box office successes – Elementary School (1991), Kolya (1996) and Dark Blue World (2001). The latter two garnered over one million admissions each and also did exceptionally well beyond the country’s borders, with Kolya even winning the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1997.

Incidentally, like Empties, both films were co-produced with UK producer Eric Abraham of Portobello Pictures. Empties was also co-produced by TV NOVA and is being distributed by Falcon.

The film’s budget was €1.2m.