Two Czech directors have decided to make a feature-length film by disregarding the usual industry standards. Tomáš Pavlíček and Jan Vejnar opted to find an alternative route to shooting their collaborative effort, the black chamber comedy She Came at Night [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tomáš Pavlíček, Jan Vejnar
ficha de la película]. “The desire to shoot films faster than the current system in the Czech Republic allows is what connects us. It can take three to five years, or sometimes much longer, before a filmmaker gathers the necessary funds to realise his or her work,” explains Vejnar. “However, [films on] some topics should, by their very nature, be created much more quickly. Otherwise, the director’s relationship with the material or topic in question, as well as the actual relevance, could get lost,” he says.

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Pavlíček and Vejnar, who have wrapped principal photography on their movie, started with the opposite approach. They hired DoP Šimon Dvořáček and set a date for shooting, and decided to adapt everything else to this situation. Their inner circle of friends and family got on board as well. “The goal was to make a film whose plot and theme would fully justify the intimate setting and modest conditions under which it was created. From this point of view, the home-invasion thriller seemed to us to be a good starting point. The result, however, will be more varied in terms of genre, which is closer to a slightly darker comedy,” says Vejnar.

The central story revolves around a pair of thirtysomethings, Aneta and Jirka. They live in a flat that belongs to Jirka’s relatives. One night, Jirka’s mother appears at the door, announcing she has to stay for a few nights. She starts to slowly uncover the private life of the couple. “She Came at Night teeters on the edge of black comedy and home-invasion horror, based on a situation that everybody is familiar with,” states the synopsis. Said summary also asks provocative questions, such as: “Is mother always right?” and “Aren’t mothers sometimes the biggest monsters?”, giving a hint of the direction that the movie will take.

Emerging director Jan Vejnar came to prominence with his surreal short film Figurant, starring Denis Lavant, and his solo feature-length debut, Head Nurse, won the MIDPOINT Feature Launch Award in 2021 (see the news). For his part, Tomáš Pavlíček debuted with the Czech mumblecore comedy Totally Talking [+lee también:
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entrevista: Tomáš Pavlíček
ficha de la película]. Czech stage actress Simona Peková stars in the role of the mother, with Annette Nesvadbová (Hany [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], while Occupation [+lee también:
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entrevista: Michal Nohejl
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She Came at Night is being produced by Tomáš Pavlíček and Jan Vejnar, and is co-produced by Šimon Dvořáček and Vít Schmarc (of distribution company Artcam Films). The film should enter Czech theatrical distribution in the second half of 2023.