Film Archive

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Documentary Films - Competition 2012 / Soukromý vesmír / Czech Republic 2012

Helena Třeštíková’s latest documentary captures 37 years in the life of the Kettner family. A family diary served as a springboard for the film: husband Petr faithfully jotted down all the joys and tribulations which his "utterly ordinary” Czech family underwent over the course of nearly four decades.

Synopsis

Helena Třeštíková’s latest movie is her most ambitious long-term documentary project to date. She began filming her childhood friend, Jana Kettnerová, in 1974 when Jana was expecting her first child, a son named Honza. A family diary served as a springboard for the film: husband Petr faithfully jotted down all the joys and tribulations which his "utterly ordinary” Czech family underwent over the course of nearly four decades. In addition to the Kettner family story, (often humorous) archive shots crop up recalling the career of Karel Gott or fundamental political changes in the Czech lands. Thanks to the director’s close relationship with the figures in the film, viewers are invited to take an uncommonly intimate look at their lives as they play out against a backdrop of "great events.” The cleverly constructed film skillfully links private and public aspects of life, touches on numerous fundamental questions, and shows that human life needn’t always have a dramatic dimension in order to have depth.

About the film

83 min / Color, DCP
European premiere
Director Helena Třeštíková / Screenplay Helena Třeštíková / Editor Jakub Hejna / Producer Kateřina Černá, Pavel Strnad / Production Negativ s.r.o. / Contact Negativ, Aerofilms / Distributor Aerofilms

About the director

Helena Třeštíková (b. 1949, Prague) graduated in direction from FAMU in 1974. She founded the Film and Sociology Foundation in 1990 and the Man and Time Foundation in 1994. She has been perfecting her long-term observation technique since her 1972 student doc Viva Acqua, and she has made over 40 documentaries. Selected filmography: Sweet Century (1998 – Best Documentary at KVIFF) and Women at the Turn of the Millennium (Trapped), 2001 – Special Jury Mention at KVIFF). Long-term documentaries: Tell Me Something about Yourself (beginning 1989) and Married Stories (1987–2006). Karlovy Vary presented two other long-term observation documentaries, Marcela (2006) and René (2008 – awarded the European Film Academy’s prestigious Prix Arte for Best European Documentary). In 2010 she competed in the KVIFF documentary film competition with Katka (2010), another time-gathered portrait.