As part of the accompanying program, the cinema at the German Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main, in collaboration with the National Film Archive, is also organizing a series focused on the artistic dialogue between writer and poet Bohumil Hrabal and director Jiří Menzel—screenings of the films Closely Watched Trains, Larks on a String, and I Served the King of England. The film series will open with the film Leaving, directed by Václav Havel, on the occasion of what would have been his 90th birthday, and will be complemented by a documentary about Villa Tugendhat in Brno, which is currently the focus of an exhibition titled More is now! at the German Architecture Museum (DAM) in Frankfurt. Thanks to the Czech Film Center, a delegation of Czech film producers will also travel to Frankfurt for the market.
In the feature-length documentary I Vouch for My Words with My Life, the film crew captures the sometimes uncompromising stances of the globally recognized Czech writer Radka Denemarková, as well as the essence of the themes in her work and their accessibility to an international audience. The film was produced by Filmkolektiv in co-production with Czech Television. Denemarková views her literary talent as a gift and the fight for the human dignity of those who would otherwise not be heard as her moral duty. The author’s novels, set in the 20th and 21st centuries, have been translated into twenty-five languages. Director Slobodanka Radun followed Radka Denemarková during her literary journeys and stays—from Germany through Switzerland and Israel all the way to Taiwan.
In the documentary Landscape of Literature by Czech Television Brno, Jaroslav Rudiš meets with contemporary authors and guides us through places associated with canonical figures of Czech literature. The writers reveal to him stories embedded in the landscape, in the lives of local people, and in the history of the 20th century. Jarmila Glazarová and contemporary authors—such as Kateřina Tučková in Žítkovské bohyně and Alice Horáčková in Rozpůlený dům—have captured the memory of life in the Czech mountains. Magical Prague is associated with Meyrink’s The Golem, and the mysterious town of Siř is linked to Franz Kafka. Other places are linked to voices of rebellion, such as that of Božena Němcová. And then there are Czech authors who are deeply connected to the regions of our country but write in German, such as Otfried Preußler and Adalbert Stifter.
The fair will also feature a film adaptation of Kateřina Tučková’s book Gerta, which will have its German premiere on ARTE on the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair. In this award-winning book, the author explores themes of hybrid identities, forced displacement, and trauma passed down from generation to generation. Television audiences in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland can now watch the film adaptation, titled Gerta und die Welt am Abgrund. At the fair, panelists will speak with the author and representatives from ARTE and Czech Television about the significance of Gerta’s fate for the past, present, and future, and will also focus on the female perspective and a story that navigates the line between instrumentalization and taboo.
As part of the accompanying program, the DFF cinema, in collaboration with the National Film Archive (NFA), is organizing a film series focused on the artistic dialogue between Bohumil Hrabal and Jiří Menzel. Menzel and Hrabal were connected not only by a lifelong friendship but also by the close ties between Menzel’s films and Hrabal’s prose. As early as 1965, Menzel contributed to the anthology film Pearls at the Bottom, based on short stories by the writer. Later adaptations followed, such as Closely Watched Trains, for which Menzel won an Oscar®. Their joint film Larks on a String, a tragicomedy about Stalinism, was banned and did not premiere until 1990. About ten years after Hrabal’s death in 1997, Menzel finally adapted another of the author’s novels for the screen in 2006—the film I Served the King of England. Two additional film screenings featuring special guests—Leaving, the directorial debut of writer and former President Václav Havel, and Dieter Reifarth’s Haus Tugendhat—round out the thematic program dedicated to the Guest of Honour. In addition, the cinema foyer will host an exhibition of contemporary Czech photography titled Joie et Refuge, organized by Galerie Teleport and curated by Štěpánka Stein.
A five-member delegation of producers from the Czech Republic will also travel to Frankfurt, with an interest in book adaptations and, more broadly, in the intersection of the literary and audiovisual worlds. The program includes meetings between Czech and Hessian producers, a location tour, an informal networking evening titled “Books at Berlinale x Hessen Film & Medien”, the “Book to Screen” professional program focused on the intersection of the literary and audiovisual worlds, and, of course, a guided tour of the Frankfurt Book Fair, including a visit to the Czech pavilion and the program celebrating the Czech Republic’s status as Guest of Honour. The event is organized by the Czech Film Center, a department of the State Audiovisual Fund, in cooperation with the Frankfurt Book Fair, Hessen Film & Medien, the Berlinale, and the Moravian Regional Library.
Photos: Petr Hrubeš / Česká televize
FILM KOLEKTIV / Za slovo ručím životem
Zuzana Panská / Česká televize