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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Czech Republic / Slovakia

Czech director Jan Prušinovský makes Mistakes

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- First clapperboard slammed on “a romance about a big lapse and even bigger love”

Czech director Jan Prušinovský makes Mistakes
Director Jan Prušinovský and actress Pavla Gajdošíková on the set of Mistakes (© Susana Lazarová)

“Porn is a hidden phenomenon in the Czech Republic. We are a porn superpower and besides Czech beer, the whole world also lauds Czech vagina:” thus begins Jan Prušinovský’s (director behind the award-winning The Snake Brothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jan Prušinovský
film profile
]
) directorial explanation about his latest film, Mistakes (read the interview), which he has just started filming. He insists that the film is not about porn, but depicts the consequences of porn in intimate relationships, because, he explains, “the story of Mistakes is pure romance.”

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Most recently, Prušinovský directed the series Most! (written by Petr Kolečko) for Czech Television, a runaway hit which touched on taboo topics with a lighthearted tone. Despite the controversial potential of Mistakes’s topic, the director says that the film, written by Roman Vojkůvka, is not about porn. “Focusing on the theme of porn, whether from a procedural or moralistic angle, would be bad,” he says, adding that Mistakes must be perceived as a romance “where people are not good or bad, they are just people who, at some points in their lives, make mistakes and are punished for them.” The film marks Prušinovský’s first foray into romance and will also be his first feature film centring on a female protagonist.

Ema (Pavla Gajdošíková) is a shop assistant in a small-town supermarket. She meets Tomáš, a roofer, and their relationship soon grows into something more serious: they fall in love and move together. Ema wants to tell Tomáš everything that she has been through. Tomáš does not care, because he believes that they should live in the now and here. But an accidental brush with the past kicks off a series of events that will turn their lives upside down. The director envisions Mistakes as a chamber drama, opting for simplicity and minimalism in storytelling and pointing to Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile
]
as an example.

Contrary to the almost documentary-like style of The Snake Brothers, Mistakes will feature steady and careful framing, “free of all mannerism”. The production phase is expected to last until November 2019, while a majority of the shooting will be done in the Czech Republic, with a couple of days spent in Slovakia. The film’s domestic premiere is preliminary set for Autumn 2020.

Mistakes is produced by Czech company Offside Men and co-produced by Czech Television and Slovakian production outfit PubRes. Czech Film Fund and Slovak Audiovisual Fund supported the project. Falcon will handle the domestic theatrical release.

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