Film Archive

The Noonday Witch

East of the West - Competition 2016 / Polednice / Czech Republic 2016

Eliška moves back with her daughter Anetka to her husband’s native village. But something strange is going on and, as the temperature rises, Eliška becomes increasingly jittery. Fear is all-pervading and spectres move freely between dream and reality. The Noonday Witch is both an atmospheric horror film and a psychological drama, deftly toying with the viewer’s senses.

Synopsis

In the middle of an unusually hot summer, Eliška moves back to her husband’s native village with her young daughter Anetka. Their return is associated with a mystery that everyone seems to be aware of except the girl. The heat starts to become unbearable, the tension mounts and Karolínka begins to sense that something isn’t right. But her mother is increasingly cagey about answering her questions and is also getting increasingly wound up. The phantoms launch their attack and it makes no difference if they’re real or not. Fighting them is arduous and it’s not clear how things will turn out. Jiří Sádek’s feature debut is both an atmospheric horror film and psychological drama. He deftly toys with the mere suggestion of the evil that lingers at the very edge of our field of vision. The film’s borderline between nightmare and everyday reality shimmers like the air above a tarmac road. Anna Geislerová excels in one of the lead roles, as does Daniela Kolářová, whose village eccentric Anežka vividly embodies everything we fear when reading Karel Jaromír Erben’s ballad “The Noonday Witch.”

Anna Kořínek

About the film

90 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Jiří Sádek / Screenplay Michal Samir, inspirováno baladou Polednice / inspired by ballad “The Noonday Witch” by Karel Jaromír Erben / Dir. of Photography Alexander Šurkala / Music Ben Corrigan / Editor Michal Lánský / Art Director Jan Pjena Novotný / Producer Matěj Chlupáček / Production Barletta s.r.o. / Coproduction HBO Europe, Room One Films, RWE, Eurodeník / Cast Aňa Geislerová, Karolína Lipowská, Daniela Kolářová, Jiří Štrébl, Zdeněk Mucha, Marie Ludvíková / Contact Barletta s.r.o. / Distributor Falcon a.s.
www: www.polednicefilm.cz

About the director

Jiří Sádek (b. 1989) studied at the secondary school affiliated to the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. He continued his education at the Miroslav Ondříček Film Academy in Písek, specialising in audiovisual production. His short film Don’t Speak Too Soon (Neříkej hop, 2010) was nominated for a Magnesia Award in the student film category in 2010 and won numerous accolades at domestic festivals, including the Audience Award at the Filmmakers to Watch event organised by Nova TV. His next short film Mr. Late (Pan pozdě, 2011) was also nominated for a Magnesia Award and won Best Film and Best Screenplay at the International Student Festival in Písek, for which Sádek filmed the trailer the following year. His filmography to date includes another two shorts, Cave of Dogs (Psí jeskyně, 2012) and Quantum (2013). The Noonday Witch (2016) is his feature film debut.