Film Archive

Old-Timers

Official Selection - Out of Competition 2019 / Staříci / Czech Republic, Slovak Republic 2019

Vlasta and Tonda don’t have much longer to live but they do have one more important task ahead of them – to find and kill the communist prosecutor who sent them to prison in the 1950s. An unusual road movie about two former political prisoners who fight for justice despite every obstacle.

Synopsis

The fifties are the distant past, and yet the injustices of the old regime still keep Vlasta awake at night. He doesn’t have many more years to live, but driven by his need for revenge he seeks out his old friend Tonda in order to realize his final wish: to find and kill a communist prosecutor. This unusual road movie, about two former political prisoners who fight for justice despite every obstacle, is the most recent joint effort by Martin Dušek and Ondřej Provazník, whose background in documentary film is reflected in the realistic depiction of the arduous journey taken by two decrepit men. At times poetic, at others absurdly humorous, the directors’ cinematic look at the past provides a portrait of the stubbornness of age.

Sandra Hezinová

About the film

85 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Martin Dušek, Ondřej Provazník / Screenplay Martin Dušek, Ondřej Provazník / Dir. of Photography Lukáš Milota / Music Hejl & Srnka / Editor Jana Vlčková / Art Director Antonín Šilar / Producer Jiří Konečný / Production Endorfilm / Coproduction Sentimentalfilm, Česká televize / Cast Jiří Schmitzer, Ladislav Mrkvička, Dušan Kaprálik, Milena Steinmasslová, Michal Suchánek / Contact endorfilm

About the director

Martin Dušek (b. 1978, Česká Lípa, Czechoslovakia). Selected filmography: Mein Kroj (2011, short), The Analogs (2013), Into the Clouds We Gaze (2014) Ondřej Provazník (b. 1978, Prague). Selected filmography: Professional Soldier (2000), Camera-Action-Broumov (2015, short). Joint direction: A Town Called Hermitage (2007), Coal in the Soul (2010), Old-Timers (2019)