Film Archive

Teddy Bear

Czech Films 2007-2008 2008 / Medvídek / Czech Republic 2007

Jirka, Ivan and Roman are forty-somethings who were friends at school; they continue to meet up, even though each has chosen a different path in life. Privately, however, secrets and lies are beginning to triumph over love and truth. A bitter-sweet comedy about friendship, love, sincerity and responsibility in which director Jan Hřebejk and his regular screenwriter Petr Jarchovský address the problems of their own generation.

Synopsis

On this occasion Jan Hřebejk and his regular screenwriter Petr Jarchovský applied their interest in human relationships to their own generation. The heroes of the tragicomedy about friendship, love, sincerity and responsibility are today’s forty-somethings – former school friends who continue to meet up from time to time to see how each is doing. On the threshold of middle age, they are experiencing crisis situations, chiefly in their private lives: Jirka, a somewhat ineffective gallery owner, is drifting apart from his wife Vanda who is vainly trying to run a cake shop; ambassador Ivan and his wife Johanka have muted arguments as to whether their children will grow up in Rome or in Prague; and gynaecologist Roman is hiding the existence of a “parallel” family from his infertile wife Anna, who vents her bitterness by baking a cake in the shape of a teddy bear. “I’m interested in stories where things under the surface are not as they seem on the outside,” says Jan Hřebejk who, in his comic relationships mosaic, doesn’t conceal the fact that he considers women to be naturally stronger in the fight for domination between partners.

About the film

98 min / Color, 35 mm

Director Jan Hřebejk / Screenplay Petr Jarchovský, Jan Hřebejk / Dir. of Photography Jan Malíř / Editor Vladimír Barák / Producer Ondřej Trojan / Production Total HelpArt T.H.A. / Cast Jiří Macháček, Táňa Vilhelmová, Roman Luknár, Aňa Geislerová, Ivan Trojan, Nataša Burger, Klára Issová, Zuzana Fialová / Contact Total HelpArt T.H.A., Menemsha Films, Inc. , Falcon a.s. / Distributor Falcon a.s.
www: www.medvidek-film.cz

About the director

Jan Hřebejk (b. 1967, Prague) was already being hailed for his college work in the screenwriting and programming dept. of FAMU. He earned his reputation with the comedy Let’s Sing a Song (Pějme píseň dohola, 1990, dir. Ondřej Trojan), which he co-wrote. He debuted with the musical Big Beat (Šakalí léta, 1993), which brought him his first Czech Lion for Best Direction. He received another two for the tragicomedy set during the Protectorate Divided We Fall (Musíme si pomáhat, 2004, + Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film) and the comedy criticising modern Czech society Up and Down (Horem Pádem, 2004). He then made the tragicomedies Cosy Dens (Pelíšky, 1999) and Pupendo (2003) and the love story Beauty in Trouble (Kráska v nesnázích, 2006), which won three Czech Lions, an award for Best European Film at the Denver IFF and the Special Jury Prize at the KVIFF 2006.

Contacts

Total HelpArt T.H.A.
Kříženeckého nám. 322, 152 53, Praha 5
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 267 073 007
Fax: +420 267 073 836
E-mail: [email protected]

Menemsha Films, Inc.
213 Rose Avenue, 2nd floor, CA 902 91, Venice
United States of America
Phone: +1 310 452 1775
Fax: +1 310 452 3740
E-mail: [email protected]

Falcon a.s.
Radlická 3185/1c, 150 00, Praha 5
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 224 422 222
E-mail: [email protected]