Best Documenntaries Collect Awards at Pilsen Fest

Nejtěžší volba , Czech Republic, 2010, 57 min, Beta SP, Health, Personal View, Social Issues

A documentary looking at the lives of four women and their partners who have refused abortions after discovering they are expecting handicapped children. The author captures their reactions on learning of their babies' state of health, and the way in which they come to terms with the doctors' prognoses and their own feelings of hopelessness. One of the children dies before birth, another during birth, while another lives for only an hour after birth. The daughter of the fourth couple has Down's syndrome, and her mother describes how those around her reacted to the handicap. The key scene in this collective portrait, which grows into an existential drama concerning life and death, takes place at the grave of one of the dead children, on the Říp hill.

Andrej Krob na tahu , Czech Republic, 2010, 52 min, Digi Beta, Arts and Culture, Portrait

A collage featuring the highly individual theatre director Andrej Krob, who on his seventieth birthday makes joyous use of free travel on public transport. This man of many professions visits the important places in his life:the Theatre on the Balustrade, the zoo and the former pub in Horní Počernice where, in 1975, he produced Havel's play The Beggar's Opera. During his wanderings, accompanied by photographer Bohdan Holomíček, he meets friends and random travellers. He explains how he sees Beckett's and Havel's absurdity, holds a rehearsal with members of his company and, at his cottage in Hrádeček, reminisces about the garden parties that were held there.

Vše pro dobro světa a Nošovic , Czech Republic, 2010, 82 min, 35 mm, Creative, Personal View, Social Issues

An original portrait of a Czech village that houses a giant car plant built by South Korea's Hyundai. Before the village turned into an industrial zone, many of the landowners had no intention of selling their plots of land... Not until many of them faced pressure from their neighbours who had accepted approx. EUR 4000 in compensation and not until they received death threats. Using nine protagonists, the film paints a portrait of a village changed beyond recognition. A humorous yet compelling film about a field that yields cars.

Nesvatbov , Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2010, 72 min, Digi Beta, HD, Creative, Society

A situational documentary film about a village mayor trying to match local people in their thirties who are still single. Slowly but surely, the Slovak village Zemplínské Hámre is dying out. Its mayor, a retired general, doesn't want to give up though. Fighting the thirty-year-olds' loneliness, he has used various means such as offering a financial reward for each newborn child or encouraging people to make children in the local public address system. None of it has worked. However, the mayor has a new plan. He decides to organize a dating party for singles from all the neighbouring villages...

Nebe peklo , Czech Republic, 2010, 84 min, Digi Beta, HD, Personal View, Portrait, Society

Heaven Hell is a full-length documentary film project dealing with human diversity that doesn't necessarily lead to hell even though it might seem like that from the outsider's point of view. It is an attempt to defend even very extreme notions of freedom if such notions are well-founded and lead to new horizons of human understanding. The film portrays people who have found pleasure in pain and decided not to hide this passion, or at least not to suppress and deny it any more. These people either inflict pain or demand it from others, but they do not force anyone to do anything. This closed society is often labelled by its members as BDSM.

Když kámen promluví , Czech Republic, 2010, 75 min, Digi Beta, DVD, Portrait

A portrait of Czech actor, esotericist and layman philosopher Jaroslav Dušek. The film was shot in the course of one year and it captures Dušek during rehearsals, meetings with people with mental disability, dolphins, in his communication with stones, construction of an environmentally-friendly clay house, etc.

Katka , Czech Republic, 2010, 90 min, 35 mm, HD, Creative, Longitudinal, Portrait

Helena Třeštíková's film is a remarkable documentary tracing fourteen years in the life of a young junkie and her futile battle with drug addiction. Why did she start taking drugs? She claims she wanted to be different. The year is 1996 and 19-year-old Katka lives in the Sananim therapy community in the town of Němčice with hope for a normal life – she dreams of having a boyfriend and even a family, some day. But there's no happy ending. The director records Katka's descent over the years into a spiral of theft, prostitution, physical and psychological deterioration – a spiral that is broken only by brief flashes of hope and resolutions to stop taking drugs. Katka's desire is sincere, but in the end drugs always win. Will Katka finally find the strength when she becomes pregnant and motherhood offers her life-sustaining motivation?