In the modern day Czech Republic there’s still some eeriness lurking around the Bohemian mountains – dark forests, forgotten castles and buried treasure. First-time director Andy Fehu’s The Greedy Tiffany tells of a world where all the love has gone and only the internet is left. Based on the recent rise of metal detectors in…
| November 18, 2016
When a creative giant dies it’s always tempting to say we’ve witnessed the passing of an era, even when the actual era has been passing, slowly, for years. So it has been with the death last month of Andrzej Wajda, still a lodestar for Polish film, but whose theatrical take on history has given way…
| November 17, 2016
After a lengthy absence from the big screen, Dariusz Gajewski marks his first foray back into feature-length production with Obce Niebo (Strange Heaven, 2015) – written, directed, and produced by the Polish cinematographer. Following a seven-year hiatus, Gajewski has successfully returned to the director’s chair to craft a film both modern and relevant, but also with a charming…
| November 17, 2016
Play Poland, the Polish film festival taking place across the UK in November 2016, has not only in recent years deepened UK audiences’ knowledge of Polish film, but has a website designed to provide insight into different aspects of movie making in Poland throughout the late 20th century. This includes a virtual exhibition platform about…
| November 17, 2016
Emerging Czech director Jiří Sádek has pulled off quite a coup with his feature debut Polednice (The Noonday Witch), an ambitious blend of nightmarish folklore and contemporary psychodrama. Not only has he secured the refined household-name Ana Greislerová for the lead part, but also managed to produce a highly-polished piece of cinema to live up…
| November 13, 2016
German engineer Schmitke’s life is turned upside down when he has to leave his comfortable research position to go back on site and repair ancient wind turbines he designed in the 1990s. The particular turbine he’s sent to, along with his idiotic assistant Thomas, is in the deep woods of the Ore Mountains, a natural…
| November 13, 2016
In 1985 Nicolae Ceaușescu, the Romanian dictator, was in his twentieth year of Communist rule. The country was culturally isolated, all forms of external media choked off, and in a cost and energy-saving exercise Ceaușescu cut state TV from two channels to one, limiting broadcasting to two or three hours a day. As in other Eastern Bloc…
| November 3, 2016
Sixty years have passed in the blink of an eye. Yet for many who are still alive, Distorting Mirrors (written by Péter Lajos and directed by Dave Spencer) brought back memories of 1956 so vividly it was as if it were yesterday when a peaceful student-spurred demonstration turned into one of the bloodiest uprisings against…
| November 2, 2016
20th Made in Prague Festival 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the Made in Prague Festival. To celebrate this special jubilee we have decided to put together an eclectic mix of films, theatre, art and music that we feel passionate about and want to share with our London audience. The varied programme also gives us…
| October 31, 2016
The play Poker Face by acclaimed Czech playwright Petr Kolečko – in Eva Daníčková’s translation and under Becka McFadde’s direction – feels like it’s happening right here right now. A great achievement, given that the action takes place in a flat in Prague and the play is both about the 1980s and the 2010s. Its…
| October 20, 2016