Film Archive

Absence of Closeness

East of the West - Competition 2017 / Absence blízkosti / Czech Republic 2017

After another failed relationship Hedvika takes her three-month-old daughter Adélka and her dog to stay with her mother and her mum’s boyfriend. Hedvika doesn’t get on all that well with her mother, nor are her feelings towards Adélka as maternal as they could be. One day she finds some diaries that her late father left behind… This small-scale psychological drama by debutant Josef Tuka is shored up by its realistic characters, an understated performance from Jana Plodková, and perceptive, discreet lensing.

Synopsis

Hedvika doesn’t have much luck with the men in her life, and when her latest affair with a married man comes to grief she takes her three-month-old daughter Adélka and her dog to live with her mother and boyfriend in a posh country villa. The young woman’s relationship with her distant mother isn’t ideal, and she also senses her own maternal feelings for Adélka are still somewhat lacking. One day she chances upon some diaries in her mother’s house that her late father had written to her when she was a child. Reading the diaries, conjuring up faint memories and contemplating decisions made long ago – and their consequences – effect a change in her… Even in his college films, debuting director Josef Tuka focused on stories of a more intimate nature in which he explored interpersonal relationships, a skill he also successfully employs in Absence of Closeness. This small-scale psychological drama is shored up by its realistic characters, an understated performance from Jana Plodková, and perceptive, discreet lensing.

Lenka Tyrpáková

About the film

65 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Josef Tuka / Screenplay Josef Tuka / Dir. of Photography Jan Cabalka / Music Vojtěch Procházka, Moin Moin / Editor Šimon Hájek / Art Director Josef Tuka, Jan Cabalka / Producer Asmara Beraki / Production Cinema Belongs To Us / Coproduction Magiclab / Cast Jana Plodková, Anna Cónová, Pavla Beretová, Luboš Veselý / Contact Cinema Belongs To Us, s.r.o.
www: www.absenceblizkosti.cz

About the director

Josef Tuka (b. 1979, České Budějovice, Czechoslovakia) studied radio and TV scripting and programming at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, and then film direction under Věra Chytilová at Prague’s FAMU. He shot several shorts as a student, of which the biggest successes were his bachelor’s degree film Saharan Sands (2009) and his graduation work Small Circle of Attention (2011). The latter was a finalist for the 2011 Magnesia Award in the student film category as part of the annual awards presented by the Czech Film and Television Academy. That same year saw the premiere of a Karel Čapek story adaptation, “Mr Janík’s Cases”, that he made for the Czech Television series “Čapek’s Pockets”. Two years later his screenplay Blue Ribbon Champagne won a Film Foundation award. Absence of Closeness is his feature film debut.