Divided into several sections the programme presents three musical docs: Czech-South African Punk in Africa by Keith Jones and Deon Maas, following the story of punk movement in South Africa; Arman T. Riahi’s Darkhead – a portrait of Austrian rapper Nazar with closer look at the problem of immigration; and Slovakian Cigarettes and songs by Marek Sulik and Jana Kovalčíková, focusing on the music as therapeutical element. In a section dedicated to the issues of ageing and solidarity between generations there will be screened the Romanian Constantin and Elena by Andrei Dascalescu and a successful Portuguese documentary about Jose Saramago, José and Pilar (dir. Miguel Gonçalves Mendes). Czech audiencees will be also shown Tomasz Wolski’s Doctors, one of the representatives of Polish cinema.
For more details on the programme, visit the festival website.
19th Days of European Film
April 12 - 19 (Prague) / April 20 - 26 (Brno)
Cigarettes and Songs
Cigarety a pesničky , Slovak Republic, 2010, 50 min, HD, Arts and Culture, Music, Society
In an evangelical church in Eastern Slovakia, something extraordinary is happening. A group of Roma gypsies and Slovaks have come together to make music and are recording a CD of ancient Roma songs in new compositions. Bela cannot speak about the loss of his wife and children, but pours out his emotions in a moving song. Irena has left her husband Emil and her children behind in their tiny home, happy to have a few days to focus on the songs which have forever been a part of her life. Their Slovak colleagues have had no experience with the Roma before, who, like in so many other countries, are continually persecuted. They soon warm to their humour and humility, in a stirring film about the unifying, therapeutic power of music.
Constantin and Elena
Constantin si Elena , Romania, Spain, 2008, 102 min, HD, Personal View, Portrait, Youth Documentary
A bittersweet love story. Where "sweet" is the love (after 55 years of marriage), "bitter" is the lack of time left for the "sweet" (the old age), and "story" is the everyday life. A film about the ancestral, pure way of living and loving. A cinematic, observational, sometimes voyeuristic look at a way of life and a life itself, both, almost extinct.
Darkhead
Schwarzkopf , Austria, 2011, 90 min, 35 mm, Music, Portrait, Society
This is the story of two generations of neo-Austrians - „darkheads“, as they call themselves - born and raised in Europe, but misfits nonetheless. Nazar, our 25-year old protagonist, an armed robbery suspect, is released from prison and confronted with his troublesome financial situation. Jobless, he seeks sanctuary in a world where he is respected and well-known - in the world of German rap music. While confronted with this situation, Nazar and his two best friends look back at a life of disruption - shattered families, street life and delinquency. A past connecting them with the present life of a new generation of immigrant descendants...
Doctors
Lekarze , Poland, 2011, 80 min, HD, Creative, Health, Portrait
What happens behind the closed doors of surgical wards, treatment rooms and other spaces where specialist medical consultations take place? The film follows the everyday work of doctors in a surgical ward: the hierarchy between them, the need to take important decisions, the struggle with economic problems. Although usually they use a vernacular incomprehensible to an average person, they also tell jokes or insider’s anecdotes. Their work, despite the knowledge and experience acquired, may still involve surprising moments.
Punk in Africa
Punk in Africa , Czech Republic, South Africa, 2011, 82 min, Digi Beta, HD, Arts and Culture, Music
Three chords, three countries, one revolution… Punk in Africa is the story of the multi-racial punk movement within the recent political and social upheavals experienced in three Southern African countries: South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. In these societies, the punk subculture represented a genuinely radical political impulse, playing out against a backdrop of intense political struggle, economic hardship and even civil war.
