Czech That Film fest coming to Riverdale

In Barefoot , part of next week’s Czech Film Festival, 8-year-old Eda (Alois Grec) endangers his family by inadvertently revealing to the occupying Nazis that his father has been listening to resistance broadcasts from London.
In Barefoot , part of next week’s Czech Film Festival, 8-year-old Eda (Alois Grec) endangers his family by inadvertently revealing to the occupying Nazis that his father has been listening to resistance broadcasts from London.

The Czechs gave America and the world the late Milos Forman, who directed a long series of classics such as Loves of a Blonde, The Fireman's Ball, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus and The People vs. Larry Flynt.

If the annual Czech That Film festival, which plays at the Riverdale 10 VIP Cinema next weekend is any indication, Forman was no fluke. In fact, Prague's Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (or FAMU) is so prestigious that Serbia's Emir Kusturica (While Father Was Away on Business) and Poland's Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa) studied there before making their breakthrough films back home and elsewhere.

Not surprisingly, Forman was one of the instructors.

Czech That Film is currently touring the United States, and is bypassing a lot of larger cities for Little Rock. The Honorary Czech Consulate is hosting the screenings along with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the Arkansas Film Commission, the Riverdale 10 VIP Cinema, The Pantry Restaurant and the Arkansas Cinema Society. Tickets range from $5 to $7 dollars and include a convenience fee and can be purchased from www.arkansasedc.com/divisions/film. All the movies are in Czech and subtitled in English. For addition information about the tour, go to czechthatfilm.com.

Milada, April 27, 7 p.m. 2 hours, 4 minutes

In 1950, the Communist government of Czechoslovakia executed democratic activist and Holocaust survivor Milada Horakova based on trumped up charges. Her death outraged people around the world including Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Eleanor Roosevelt. Director David Mrnka shot the movie in several locations where Horakova actually set foot, including the courtroom where she was tried. Mrnka will take part in a Q&A after the screening.

Barefoot (Po strnisti bos), April 28, 2 p.m. 1 hour, 51 minutes

Jan Sverak won an Oscar in 1997 for his touching film Kolya, and his most recent movie Barefoot won three Czech Lions (Prague's version of an Oscar) for cinematography, sound and best supporting actor. A boy living under Nazi occupation makes the mistake of revealing that his dad has been listening to broadcasts from the resistance in London. The family flees to the countryside with the shadow of the war never leaving them behind.

Family Friend (Zahradnictvi: Rodinny pritel), April 28, 4:15 p.m. 2 hours, 10 minutes

Also set during German occupation, Family Friend concerns three young women and two children waiting for the men in their lives to return from concentration camps. Director Jan Hrebejk and writer Petr Jarchovsky follow how forbidden love, friendship and other factors affect the lives of the women and a doctor who has been their family friend. This is the first part of a trilogy of movies Hrebejk and Jarchovsky have made.

Ice Mother (Baba z ledu) Saturday, April 28, 6:15 p.m. 1 hour, 46 minutes

After devoting herself to two sons (a struggling bureaucrat and a rich businessman) who seem indifferent to her, a widow named Hana (Zuzana Kronerova) becomes a new woman when she rescues a man (Pavel Novy) swimming in the frigid water. She joins him and others in the frozen river and finds more to life than baking dishes to keep her offspring happy. Director Bohdan Slama won Best Screenplay in an International Narrative at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, and the movie won six Czech Lions (Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Lead Actress, Supporting Actress).

MovieStyle on 04/20/2018

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