Czech Films 2015–2016 2016 / Odvaha / Czech Republic 2016
A fascinating documentary dialogue evolved over the course of thirty months between renowned filmmaker Pavel Štingl and one of the iconic figures of Czech modern art, sculptor and painter Jaroslav Róna. It was during this time that one of the ten largest bronze equestrian statues in the world – today situated in Brno – gradually came into being. A film contemplating the sculpture itself, things material and abstract, the essence of creative endeavour, and the courage of the artist to fulfil his vision.
“It’d be really cool if Michelangelo, Rodin and Bourdelle took a look at my sculpture and congratulated me for doing a great job. And maybe that other guy, you know, Donatello,” quips sculptor and painter Jaroslav Róna with his typical irresistible humour. An iconic figure of Czech modern art, Róna won a commission to create an equestrian statue of a knight on horseback for Moravian Square in Brno. Thus the opportunity to resume the collaboration between this charismatic artist and the renowned documentarist begun ten years previously, when Róna was working on his monument to Franz Kafka in Prague (Description of a Struggle, 2004). With the invaluable assistance of cameraman Miroslav Janek, a documentary dialogue began to take shape over the space of thirty months, during which time the sculpture, entitled Courage, came into being with the help of an architect, stuccoworker, bronze artist and metal chaser. A discussion on the sculpture itself, on substance and things abstract and elusive, on the essence of creative endeavour, and on the courage to accomplish the only thing which, in Róna’s view, really engages and convinces people – action.
Karel Och
70 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Pavel Štingl
/ Dir. of Photography Miroslav Janek
/ Music Miloš Vacík
/ Editor Tonička Janková, Jakub Voves
/ Art Director Pavel Štingl
/ Producer Pavel Štingl
/ Production K2 s. r. o.
/ Coproduction Česká televize
/ Contact K2 s.r.o.
Pavel Štingl (b. 1960, Prague) studied documentary filmmaking at Prague’s FAMU. His graduate film focusing on young doctors Learning to Fear (1985) won various awards and established one of the chief lines of his work. In the early 1990s he began a lengthy, award-winning series of major political documentaries examining countries of the former Soviet Bloc. In 1995 he founded K2, his own production company, where he produced several documentary series and a number of comprehensive documentary coproductions, including major works covering important events in 20th century history: The Story of the Patrie Survivors (1996), Four Pairs of Shoes (1997), Stone and Knowledge (1998), The Lost World of Karel Pecka (2000), and The Second Life of Lidice (2002). His films have been screened at numerous foreign and domestic festivals, winning a variety of awards.
K2 s.r.o.
Veverkova 8, 170 00, Praha 7
Czech Republic
Phone: +420 222 560 130
E-mail: [email protected]
Pavel Štingl
Film Director
Jaroslav Róna
Other
Miroslav Janek
Film Director
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