Head - hands - hearT

Czech Films 2010–2011 2011 / Hlava - ruce - srdcE / Czech Republic 2010

1914. Colonel von Haukwitz dies under strange circumstances during a seance. His fiancée, the actress Klára Knabelová, discovers that his head, hands and heart were removed from his body after his death.... An intimate tale of love without love, war without war, and sorcery without magic, in an original, uninhibited fantasy vision by director David Jařab.

Head - hands - hearT

Synopsis

1914. Colonel von Haukwitz dies under strange circumstances during a seance. His fiancée, the actress Klára Knabelová, discovers that his head, hands and heart were removed from his body after his death. Endeavouring to find out the truth behind this grizzly deed, she makes the acquaintance of her fiancé’s friend, Lieutenant Roth. Other parts of the body are being exploited by various occult practitioners, and military investigator Vrana sets off for Europe to seek them out and unravel the mystery. Austria-Hungary during the First World War and the post-war period provided the inspiration for an original and uninhibited yet logical vision by director David Jařab. This intimate tale of love without love, war without war, and sorcery without magic, finds an analogy between the present and an era determined to modernise, emancipate and liberate – and also to prevail and establish new myths. In a story told using somewhat different devices than is usual in genre films, the movie also examines the conflict between male and female intimacy.

About the film

110 min / Color, 35 mm

Director David Jařab / Screenplay David Jařab / Dir. of Photography Marek Jícha / Music Petr Haas / Editor Jan Daňhel / Producer Viktor Schwarcz / Production Cineart TV Prague s.r.o. / Cast Viktorie Čermáková, Roman Zach, Martin Finger, Ivana Uhlířová, Jiří Schmitzer, Alois Švehlík, Oldřich Vlach, Jaroslav Plesl / Contact Czech Television - Telexport, Bontonfilm, a.s., Czech Television, Festival Department / Distributor Bontonfilm, a.s.
www: www.hlava-ruce-srdce.cz

About the director

David Jařab

David Jařab (b. 1971, Hranice na Moravě) studied direction at the Theatre Faculty of the Janáček Academy in Brno. From 1993 to 1998 his name was associated with Brno’s HaDivadlo theatre and, from 2002, with Prague’s Comedy Theatre. He has written or co-written a number of stage plays, the majority of which he also directed. In 1989 he became a member of the Brno-based surrealist circle A. I. V., and he has been a member of the Czech and Slovak Surrealist Group since the mid-1990s. He has published mainly in the revue Analogon, whose four-part TV-stage project Analogon Evenings (2002) he directed. He is also an artist. He incorporated his experience developing artistic and historical ideas in his feature debut Vaterland – A Hunting Logbook (2004 – Czech Lion award in 2005 for Best Art Direction).

Contacts

Czech Television - Telexport
Kavčí hory, 140 70, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 261 137 047
E-mail: telexport@ceskatelevize.cz

Bontonfilm, a.s.
Na Poříčí 1047/26, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 257 415 111
E-mail: info@bontonfilm.cz

Czech Television, Festival Department
Kavčí Hory, 140 70, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 261 137 438; +420 261 137 106
Fax: +420 261 211 354
E-mail: jitka.prochazkova@ceskatelevize.cz; petra.stovikova@ceskatelevize.cz

Guests

David Jařab
Film Director

Petr Haas
Music Composer

Aleš Danielis
Distributor