home > press > press release > 2 nd press release

PRESS RELEASE

3 rd Press release

The 15th ANNUAL DAYS OF EUROPEAN FILM will open on April 17, 2008 in Světozor theatre with the German film The Wave (Die Welle, dir. Dennis Gansel, 2008, distributor: SPI International). The movie premiered this year at Sundance and has enjoyed massive success in Germany so far. In the first week of its release, it was seen by almost half a million moviegoers, and took EUR 3.5 million in box office ticket sales within two weeks, an impressive showing for a European film.The Prague festival will close in Světozor theatre as well, on April 29, with the Irish movie The Tiger's Tale (dir. John Boorman, 2006), featuring Sex in the City’s Kim Catrall as the main character’s wife.

Among the 38 feature films in the program is one of last year’s winners in Cannes, the Romanian movie California Dreamin’ (Endless) (dir. Cristian Nemescu, 2006). The film’s story is linked with the tragic death of its director, Cristiana Nemescu, who didn’t manage to finish making it, and has been lauded as one of Europe’s most talented directors since his premature death.

Another film sure to be popular with audiences is Prague (dir. Ole Christian Madsen, 2006), starring Mads Mikkelsen, known for his role as the leading bad guy in the last James Bond movie, Casino Royale.

As in years past at the DEF, French cinematography will be plentifully represented. Hunting and Gathering (Ensemble, C’est Tout, dir. Claude Berri, 2006), an intimate story of four people who meet by a twist of fate, features the attractive French star Audrey Tautou.  Another French movie,
Cous Cous (La Graine et le Mulet, dir. Abdellatif  Kechiche, 2005), about Moroccan immigrants
in France, won several awards in Venice.

Another film worthy of mention is the Greek “box office hit of all time” Loufa kai parallagi: Sirines sto Egeo (dir. Nicos Perakis, 2005), a military satire about a group of Greek soldiers sent to the island of Kos to defend the skerry of Pitta from an invasion by Turkish troops. The appearance of a few unexpected “aliens” leads to more than one comical situation. Spain is represented by The Wooden Box (La Caja, dir. Juan Carlos Falcón Rivero, 2007), abittersweet, poetic tragicomedy depicting life on the Canary Islands in the 1960s that has received numerous festival prizes (IFF Montreal, IFF Las Palmas and others).

The Dutch film Kicks (dir. Albert Ter Heerdt, 2007), which has also been chosen for the prestigious selection of European films presented every spring by European Film Promotion, won the prize for best screenplay and soundtrack at the Cairo International Film Festival. Kicks offers up a harsh yet funny kaleidoscopic look into contemporary Dutch society. Striving for a confrontational view, it also portrays with humor the emotional distance, fear, expectations and misunderstandings that are rife in multicultural societies. The Swiss production Late Bloomers (Die Herbstzeitlosen, dir. Bettina Oberli, 2006), a moving story of a former seamstress who makes her lifelong dream come true at the age of 80 when she opens
a women’s lingerie shop selling her own designs, will delight all audiences.

Return of the Storks (Návrat bocianov, dir. Martin Repka, 2007), Slovakia’s Oscar nominee for 2008 and a Czech-Slovak-German co-production, stars German actress Katharina Lorenz, a promising theatrical discovery of 2006.

Last but not least, we must mention the showcase’s Czech representative, director Petr Zelenka’s anxiously awaited new movie, The Karamazov Brothers (Karamazovi, dir. Petr Zelenka, 2008), which will have a very special screening at this year’s DEF. This original adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s novel, with plenty of typical Zelenka humor, exaggeration and mystification, clearly deserves a place in the showcase of the best cinematography Europe.

The delegations for the screened films are not definitive yet. So far we have confirmed the attendance of: California Dreamin’ (Endless) - actor Andrei Vasluianu, who will be in Prague from April 24-27, Dead in Tree Days - director Andreas Prochaska - who will be in Prague from April 18-20, Kythera – director Péter Mészáros, producer Durst György , actress Kata Kovács - who will be in Prague from April 25-27, Return of the Storks – director Martin Repka – who will be in Prague from April 25-26 , The Wawe –actress Maren Kroymann, who will be in Prague from April 17-18, Treseta – Story of an Island – director of photography Vedran Samanovič, actor Slobodan Milovanovič, - who will be in Prague from April 28-29

DEF would not be complete without short films, which will be screened in two separate blocks. As in years past, the first will present works from students of The Film and TV of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and The Film Academy of Miroslav Ondricek in Písek. The second block, presented under the name “Five Films of Unrest,” is new at the festival and presents works by young European authors with original concepts of filmmaking. The films were chosen in collaboration with the organizers of Fresh Film Fest.

Like every year, the showcase will also run in Brno’s B. Bakaly theatre, from April 25-30, 2008. Olomouc, until this year only DEF Regional Echoes location, will host the DEF from April 28-May 2, 2008 in the city’s Metropol theatre. DEF Regional Echoes will take place this year in Boskovice’s Panorama theatre from May 1-4, 2008 and in Uherské Hradiště’s Hvězda theatre from May 3-4, 2008.

All films will be screened in their original language (most with English subtitles) and will be simultaneously translated into Czech through headphones.
Prague residents and visitors will have a chance to enjoy the ever popular “European Film Marathon,” aimed especially at English-language enthusiasts and presenting the only screenings that will not be translated into Czech. This year’s marathon will be held twice, on 19 April in Světozor theatre and on April 25 in Aero theatre.
Among the accompanying events is a seminar for cinema operators and distributors, focusing chiefly on the digitization of films and financial support for operating cinemas from the EU. The seminar will take place in Prague’s Světozor theatre on April 23 and will be moderated by Ivo Andrle, the director of Aero theatre. Among the guests are Alexander Syllaba from Austria’s Paradiso theatre, honored with a prestigious Europa Cinemas award in 2007, and Alexander Stolz, executive director of the UK Film Council’s digital distribution and cinema section, who will present Great Britain’s Digital Screen Network cinema digitization project.

You can find details about the films and the accompanying program in our bilingual catalogue or at www.eurofilmfest.cz, which will be launched on April 3.

The catalogue will be available for free at the above-mentioned cinemas. Tickets are still just CZK 90, and the "Marathon of European Film" (block of four films) costs an unbeatable CZK 150. Advance sales in the Prague cinemas have already begun, and at Světozor festival-goers can even buy tickets for screenings at Aero. Moreover, Aero is offering very advantageous pre-paid tickets! Tickets can also be reserved on www.kinosvetozor.cz and www.kinoaero.cz or by calling our new telephone reservation line + 420 608 33 00 88.

We trust festival-goers will be pleasantly surprised by the brand new trailer, crafted by the Mods directorial duo and the production company Bistro Films.

The Prague City Council’s Committte for Culture and Liesure Time decided during its meeting yesterday not to support the Days of European Film. Considering that the City of Prague has supported the showcase for ten years and the DEF is a component of the Prague’s Cultural Policy Concept, it was shocking to learn that zero funding was proposed for our project without any substantive grounds. Making matters worse is the fact that City Hall has had our request for partnership since last October. Preparation for the festival is a long-term affair, which is why the City of Prague is listed as a partner of the DEF in all of the showcase’s promotional materials. The committee’s proposal has placed the DEF’s organizers in a very difficult, and to some extent irresolvable, situation. As was said at the committee meeting, the partnership will be subject to further negotiations, and we firmly believe that the current proposal will be re-evaluated and that Prague will decide to continue to support the DEF.

The DEF is a unique example of successful cooperation between current and future EU member states. Not supporting this project shortly before the Czech Republic’s chairmanship of the European Council would be alarming

The festival takes place under the auspices of Czech Culture Minister Václav Jehlička, the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic, the Mayor of Prague, Pavel Bém, the Mayor of Brno, Roman Onderka, and the Mayor of Olomouc, Martin Novotný.
The festival is organized by embassies and cultural institutes of current and future member states of the European Union and the City of Prague with support from the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic the Czech Ministry of Culture, the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Brno Cultural Center,  PasticheFilmz and Eurimages.

DEF’s general partner is FILM+ and its media partners are Óčko TV, Express Radio, Metropolisand Time In magazines and TV Star.

Accreditation for journalists: upon request, we will e-mail you the accreditation form. Please deliver the filled-in forms by April 11, to the reception desk at the Days of European Film office: Národní 28, Prague 1, 110 00.  Accreditation cards can be picked up from 3-7 p.m. on April 15 at Světozor theatre.

On behalf of the DEF team,

Anna Bartošková
DEF PR service

CONTACT:
Days of European Film
Národní třída 28, 110 00, Praha 1
tel: +420 603 844 811, +420 604 607 477
fax: +420 221 105 303
info@eurofilmfest.cz
press@eurofilmfest.cz
www.eurofilmfest.cz