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Festival coverage

Made In Prague

5 November – 2 November 2016

I, Olga Hepnarova
I, Olga Hepnarova

The festival's 20th edition will run from November 5 to December 2, celebrating the best of Czech cinema, music, art and theatre.

Strong women and family affairs are key themes in this year's festival, organised by London's Czech Centre, which will feature black and white existential drama I, Olga Hepnarová, about the life of the last woman to be hanged in Czechoslovakia. Classic films, including the 1920s avant-garde Erotikon, featuring live accompaniment by Lydia Kavina (theremin), Thomas Ang (piano), and foreign language Oscar winner The Shop On The High Street will also be shown.

There will also be an evening dedicated to A Country In Motion: Films From Burma followed by a discussion with Burmese filmmakers and experts, reflecting on the films and Czech – Burmese parallels, Václav Havel's friendship with Aung San Suu Kyi, and the input given by Czech filmmakers to Burmese documentarians.

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Latest reviews

  • Family Film
    Review preview for Family Film

    Omerzu's observational, unsentimental style and the cool, stripped back lensing from Lukas Milota means that increasingly outlandish unfortunate events unfold with an acidic humour rather than melodrama.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    A family starts to disintegrate after the mother and father leave the children home alone.
  • Always Together
    Review preview for Always Together

    Tomanová, making her debut here, shows rather than tells their story, leaving us to interpret.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A family struggle with their patriarch's idea of an alternative lifestyle.
  • We Are Never Alone
    Review preview for We Are Never Alone

    Petr Vaclav's latest film is almost smothering in its bleakness.

    Amber Wilkinson · 2.5 out of 5
    Bleak lives intersect in a small town in the Czech Republic.
  • The Greedy Tiffany
    Review preview for The Greedy Tiffany

    Fehu, in a careful balancing of tone, ensures that Pepa's situation remains tragicomic to the last, rather than merely exploiting him for cheap laughs.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    A rube named Pepa robs cottages for cash but the discovery of a strange video recording points him to a place where he’ll find a treasure of immense value... little realising there is a plan for those who turn up looking for it.
  • Schmitke
    Review preview for Schmitke

    It's worth noting that this is Altricher's graduation film - he's certainly got his career off to an impressive start.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
    A level-headed engineer arrives to repair a creaking old wind turbine. Out there in the misty woods he also goes in search of something else deep inside him.
  • Eva Nová
    Review preview for Eva Nová

    Skop has made documentaries in the past and he and Vásáryová are alive to small gestures.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
    A glimpse into an ageing woman’s oppressive world where alcohol is quickening the process of decline.
  • The Noonday Witch
    Review preview for The Noonday Witch

    Alexander Surkala’s sumptuous cinematography makes the place look endlessly beguiling and, intermittently, delivers us into the kind of darkness that can only exist in contrast with such light.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Eliška moves back with her daughter Karolínka to her husband’s native village. But something strange is going on and, as the temperature rises, Eliška becomes increasingly jittery. Fear is all-pervading and spectres move freely between dream and reality.
  • The Seven Ravens
    Review preview for The Seven Ravens

    Nellis gives the story a welcome feminist slant, showing Bohdanka is a heroine to be reckoned with and presenting Gabriela as complex and lonely rather than just a twisted crone.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A young girl must save her brothers from a curse.
  • Leshy
    Review preview for Leshy

    Soukup fills it with unsettling detail, employing judicious use of jump scares and silence, so that the stillness inspires thoughts not of nature's calmness, but of an animal frozen in fear before flight.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    A gamekeeper tracks a mysterious beast that has been awoken by poachers.
  • Borderlines
    Review preview for Borderlines

    Simply rendered and very effective.

    Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
    Two people struggle to share their space.

A–Z of Made In Prague 2016 reviews

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