Official Selection - Competition 2001 / Anděl Exit / Czech Republic 2000
Young Mikeš lives near the Prague intersection at Anděl in a building populated with people in similar dire straits. At present he is trying to break free of his former lifestyle. To this end he hooks up with a nice neighbour named Jana who may represent for him a way into the world of normal people. But his friend Lukáš and girlfriend Kája drag him back to drugs and theft. On a trip to South Africa, he and Kája succeed in making a new drug. When he returns home everyone forces the resistant Mikeš to try and recreate the lucky experiment once more. The drug made by mixing certain ingredients with the couple’s love, pain and envy, of course brings happiness to no one. In the end, however, Mikeš gets one more chance at life, though there is no guarantee that he’ll be able to take advantage of it. This low-budget psychological drama with mystical elements was inspired by Jáchym Topol’s novel of the same name. The film was shot chronologically on digital video using a skeleton crew. The resulting visual effect was created when the film was copied onto 35 mm film.
100 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Vladimír Michálek
/ Screenplay Vladimír Michálek, Jáchym Topol
/ Dir. of Photography Martin Štrba
/ Music Jan Čechtický, Yarda Helešič
/ Editor Jiří Brožek
/ Producer Jaroslav Bouček
/ Production Buc Film S. R. O.
/ Cast Klára Issová, Jan Čechtický, Zuzana Stivínová, Vojta Pavlíček, Pavel Landovský, Eva Holubová, Trevor S. Taylor, Věra Galatíková, Pavel Zajíček, Žofie Hradilková
Vladimír Michálek (b. 1956, Mladá Boleslav) graduated in documentary film from Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU) in 1992. He began working as a documentary filmmaker. In 1994 he made his debut in feature films with America, loosely based on the novel by Franz Kafka. Two years later he shot Forgotten Light, an intimate psychological drama about a priest resisting Communism (shown in the competition at the 1997 Karlovy Vary IFF – Boleslav Polívka awarded Best Actor). His reputation as a formally brilliant filmmaker able to deal with the most varied genre and stylistic situations and morally heavy themes was confirmed three years ago with his western-style drama Sekal Has to Die, set in a Moravian village during the Nazi occupation. Olaf Lubaszenko was awarded Best Actor for his role in the film at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 1998.
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