Film of the Week: Private Universe
Theatrical Release (Czech Republic): January 26, 2012
Private Universe
Director: Třeštíková Helena
Producer: Černá Kateřina, Strnad Pavel
Production company: Negativ, Czech TV
Soukromý vesmír , Czech Republic, 2012, 83 min, 35 mm, Longitudinal, Personal View, Social Issues
Honza was born in 1974 into the cheerless era of socialism in Czechoslovakia. At that time, his parents Jana and Petr lived in one room in the apartment of Jana's divorced mother and her widowed grandmother. A few years later, the family moved from Prague to Liberec where Petr found a job and a little house for the family. When Honza was born, his father began writing a family chronicle and he has continued to do so for 37 years. “Family Diary“ shows not only the life of one ordinary family but also how the Czech society has changed in the last four decades. Who are we, where do we come from and where do we go?
Třeštíková Helena
Helena Třeštíková studied documentary filmmaking at the Prague Film Academy, FAMU. Since 1974 she has worked as a professional filmmaker, shooting almost fifty documentary films of various lengths on themes of interpersonal relationships and social problems. In the course of time, she specialized in the longitudinal approach, following people’s life stories on long-term basis. For a period of six years, her first series of time-lapse films followed the everyday lives of several young married couples from the moment of their wedding. For her film René (2008), she was awarded by the European Film Academy (EFA) the 2008 Prix Arte for Best Documentary Film.
Třeštíková's 2010 documentary film Katka was pitched at the 2007 East European Forum, presented at the 2009 Docu Talents from the East, and added to the 2010 East Silver Caravan. It is also available for streaming at East Silver.
Read more about Třeštíková's films by searching our article archive; or browse texts under the Articles tab on the page of some of her films, including the recent Marriage Stories 20 Years Later, Marcela, René, Katka, and 24.