1. Tisková zpráva 2014

Prague, March 14, 2014

THE 21st ANNUAL EDITION OF DAYS OF EUROPEAN FILM WILL START IN LESS THAN A MONTH

Prague 10 – 17 April / Světozor and Lucerna cinemas
Brno 18 – 22 April / Scala cinema

The Echoes of the Days of European Film will take place in the following towns on the following dates:

Boskovice (April 23 – 25, 2014), Jablonec nad Nisou (April 23 – 27, 2014),
Hradec Králové (April 23 – 25, 2014), Havířov (April 24 – 27, 2014),

Plzeň (April 23 – 24, 2014)

The festival of the contemporary European cinema will be opened by the film Doppelganger shot, after his successful debut film My Name Is Oliver Tate, by Richard Ayoade as a loose adaptation of a novel by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky. Richard Ayoade is best known as an actor and a comedian (the unforgettable IT worker Moss from the IT Crowd TV series). A kafkaesquely absurd, at times almost surreal-styled black humour story about a man whose life is entered by and radically complicated by a doppelganger. Ayoade cannot deny drawing inspiration from similarly toned films such as the cult film Brazil or 1984, which is most evident in the form of the bureaucratic, almost dystopian world, in which the lead character lives his initially completely humdrum and uninteresting life. Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Now You See Me) and Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right, Jane Eyre) were cast in the leading roles of this dark comedy.

The closing film of the festival is a debut feature film Finsterworld by the German director Frauke Finsterwalder. The film, which will be screened in Lucerna cinema on April 17, is composed of a series of intertwined stories of several lead characters and their sometimes almost bizarre penchants, deviances or neuroses: a pedicurist carefully collecting dead skin from the feet of his female clients, a policeman with an obscure penchant for animal costumes, a superficial female documentary filmmaker searching for a “big theme”, a spoiled brat using his rich parents and the like. With a great dose of black humour, the director depicts, in a small segment, a well-made antithesis to what is referred to as a “heimatfilm” – a specific genre of popular “homeland” films singing praises about the beauties of Germany. Behind the facade of happy, beautiful and successful people, the reverse, darker side is hiding. Thus, the absurdity of the current world is a cynical comment on the state of today’s society. In the supporting roles, we can see, for example, the talented Polish actor Jakub Gierszal (Yuma) or the well-known German actress Corinna Harfouch (The Downfall). For her debut, which has met with delighted response from the audience in Germany, Frauke Finsterwalder has already received several awards, including the Critics’ Award, the main Golden Eye award at the festival in Zurich and the Bronze Zenith award at the festival in Montreal.

The programme of the festival is divided into the already established theme-specific sections (National League, Best Of, Media, €Docs, To the Point), to which a special section called EuroCrime has been added this year. This section is dedicated to the current thrillers and criminal films across Europe. For example, the Belgian film The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears from the pair of directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, which is a stylish tribute to and admitted passion for Italian thrillers of the 1970s, the specific sub-genre of the giallo films. “The section will also offer one documentary film called Gaze Into the Abyss by the Austrian director Barbara Eder, which is about forensic psychologists dealing with serial killers,” adds Zdeněk Blaha, the programmer of the festival.

The viewers can find more detailed information on the programme, the list of films in each section and other information on this year’s annual edition of the Days of European Films at www.dnyevropskehofilmu.cz.

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We also cordially invite you to a press conference, which will take place in the Riding Hall (Konírna) of the Nostic Palace on Monday 31 March 2014 from 11.00 a.m. (The Ministry of Culture, Maltézské náměstí 1, Praha 1). You can find more information in the enclosed invitation card.

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THE FESTIVAL TAKES PLACE UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CZECH CULTURE MINISTER DANIEL HERMAN, THE REPRESENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, TOMÁŠ HUDEČEK – THE LORD MAYOR OF THE CAPITAL CITY OF PRAGUE AND OLDŘICH LOMECKÝ – THE MAYOR OF THE CITY DISTRICT OF PRAGUE 1 / ORGANISED BY THE EMBASSIES AND CULTURAL INSTITUTES OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AND THE REPRESENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC / WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC, THE STATE CINEMATOGRAPHY FUND, THE CAPITAL CITY OF PRAGUE AND THE CITY DISTRICT OF PRAGUE 1

THE GENERAL PARTNER IS THE FILM + CHANNEL. / THE MAIN MEDIA PARTNER IS THE CZECH TELEVISION / MEDIA PARTNERS ARE METRO, iDNES, EXPRESRADIO, RESPEKT, STUDENT AGENCY AND ČSFD.CZ.

Contact:

Michaela Dvořáková, PR DEF

Tel.: +420 732 372 424

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Mail address: Národní 28, 110 00 Praha 1