Finále Plzeň - Festival of Czech Films took place April 22 - 28, 2012 in Pilsen, CZE - The international documentary jury decided to award the main prize, the Golden Kingfisher Award for Best Documentary Film, to Love in the Grave by David Vondráček. This is another festival prize for Vondráček who received the Best Foreign Documentary Film award at the Rome Independent Film Festival a few weeks ago.
The annual AČFK Prize for the best documentary was awarded to Solar Eclipse directed by Martin Mareček.
The Dagmar Táborská Prize, awarded by the Dagmar and Václav Táborský Foundation and the international documentary jury, for the most original documentary by a female director up to 35 years of age went to Publicly Illegal by directors Lucie Králová and Tereza Reichová.
The Václav Táborský prize, awarded by the Dagmar and Václav Táborský Foundation and the international documentary jury, for the most original documentary by a male/female director up to 35 years of age went to the film Generation Singles by director Jana Počtová.
The Student Jury Award was presented to Angel's Game by Adéla Sirotková.
Please see below for film trailers and technical details.
Love in the Grave
Láska v hrobě , Czech Republic, 2011, 78 min, Digi Beta, Longitudinal, Social Issues, Society
At the beginning of the second millennium, a group of homeless people found refuge at a German protestant graveyard in Prague - Strašnice. Among them, there is a couple of eternal fiancés: thirty-three-year-old Jana and fifty-year-old Jan. As soon as Jana and Jan get settled in a neogothic tomb, the police raid the graveyard...The film has been made as an observational documentary in the years 2007 - 2011.
Generation Singles
Generace Singles , Czech Republic, 2011, 77 min, HD, Current Affairs, Social Issues, Society
The documentary about people without partners is a probe into human relations in present-day Czech Republic, a contemplation of diverse forms of hope and disillusion. It deals with sexuality, causes of infidelity, reasons for divorces, and transformations of traditional partnership and family models. The life of one of the female protagonists has a surprising denouement in the epilogue and the destinies of the protagonists after the documentary was made are described in the final credits. “On the basis of the portraits of several people I would like to open up the singles theme. I would like to create a platform for discussion, I would like to stop and try to understand at least a little what is happening around us,” says director Jana Počtová.
Solar Eclipse
Pod sluncem tma , Czech Republic, 2011, 81 min, DV, Creative, Current Affairs, Portrait, Social Issues
In 2006, Milan and Tomas electrified a school campus and a hospital in a detached Zambian village. After four years, they return for the last time to find out about their system's failures, repair it and hand it over at last. The film follows them through chaotic days as well as pitch black nights and provides a fresh insight into the pitfalls of humanitarian development projects. Short circuits of all sorts, blending and dissolving of different worlds, rituals of gratitude and concepts of solutions. With no attempts to declare or evaluate anything, Solar Eclipse becomes a situation probe examining various forms of light and darkness. Will the two Czech linkboys succeed in lighting up the Zambian bushland?
The Angel's Game
Andělská hra , Czech Republic, 2011, 52 min, Digi Beta, HD, Creative, Current Affairs, Health, Social Issues
Romana Andelova had cancer as a child and spent many months in hospital. As a little girl in an ugly sterile hospital, she felt very lonely and so she invented her own imaginary fantasy world featuring the fictional characters of cheapskates. She wrote a book about them. Then it occurred to her that her experience could help the sick children who go through the same trauma.The film tells the story of her life, her foundation and her help for the little patients.
More information about Finále Plzeň here.