Film Archive

Little Harbour

Czech Films 2016–2017 2017 / Piata loď / Slovak Republic, Czech Republic 2017

Under somewhat unusual circumstances, ten-year-old Jarka finds herself a new family when she starts taking care of two abandoned babies. She enlists the help of Kristián, a boy of similar age, to help her prepare baby food in a dirty garden shed. In this poetic film, the children are thus finally able to create the home they never had themselves. But how long will this idyll last?

Synopsis

Ten-year-old Jarka’s world is one of chaos and unruliness. The young girl lives in a Bratislava apartment block, where no-one really takes any interest in her, and her mother prefers hanging out with friends. Jarka is thus deprived of the emotional contact and affection she needs. When her mum leaves to spend a few days in Prague, Jarka chances upon two abandoned babies. Together with Kristián, a boy of similar age, she takes them in a pram to a secluded allotment site and starts looking after them… In Iveta Grófová’s poetic film two children become the parents they themselves never had. Their clumsy yet conscientious guardianship of two screaming infants is naturally condemned to failure in the real world; nevertheless, Grófová tells her story through the eyes of child protagonists who defy the insensitive logic of adults. Denisa Buranová’s camera creates the kind of fantasy world where we have all taken refuge at some point in our lives. With superb performances from the nonpro child actors, the film won a Crystal Bear for Best Film in the Generation Kplus competition at this year’s Berlinale.

Jan Škoda

About the film

85 min / Color, DCP

Director Iveta Grófová / Screenplay Marek Leščák, Iveta Grófová na motivy stejnojmenného románu / based on the novel of the same name by Monika Kompaníková / Dir. of Photography Denisa Buranová / Music Matej Hlaváč / Editor Anton Fabian / Art Director Denisa Buranová, Iveta Grófová, Iva Němcová / Producer Katarína Krnáčová, Iveta Grófová, Jiří Konečný / Production Hulapa film, Endorfilm / Coproduction Katapult Film, Rozhlas a televízia Slovenska, Silverart / Cast Vanessa Szamuhelová, Matúš Bačišin, Katarína Kamencová, Johanna Tesařová / Sales Loco Films / Contact endorfilm / Distributor CinemArt, a.s.
www: www.filmpiatalod.sk

About the director

Iveta Grófová (b. 1980, Trenčín, Czechoslovakia) studied animation (2004) and documentary film (2009) at Bratislava’s Academy of Performing Arts. Her feature film debut, the remarkable social drama Made in Ash (2012), had its world premiere at the Karlovy Vary IFF, opening the East of the West section. The film was also the Slovak Oscar nominee and was screened at numerous foreign film festivals, such as Thessaloniki, Cottbus, Torino, BFI London, Black Nights FF in Tallinn, and the Chicago European Union Film Festival. She also shot the short Discoboy (2013), which was included in the film project Slovakia 2.0, the documentary Blues for Solo Mothers (2014), and the documentary road movie Monika Kompaníková’s Cruise Diary (2015), about the author of the novel on which Little Harbour is based. In 2010 she established Hulapa film which chiefly develops and produces original projects.