René (2008)
dir. Helena Treštíková

Czech Republic, 83’ + 58’

“Why has my shitty life turned out like this? No-one knows. Not even God. God’s on holiday and he’s reading porn” – an excerpt from Diary of the Forgotten, the journal kept by die-hard criminal and imaginative writer René Plášil, the main protagonist in another of Helena Treštíková’s long-term documentaries. With raw authenticity, the director records the luckless fate of René over a period of twenty years as he yo-yos between prison and freedom. The life of René, who successfully stylises himself in the role of a desperado, unfolds against a backdrop of important political events occurring in the CR and beyond its borders. The Velvet Revolution, the presidential election, 9/11 and the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU. All this is “digested” by René mostly from the confines of various prisons. The film also traces the director’s intriguing relationship with her “subject of study”, who sometimes feels like a prostitute selling his life story for filthy lucre, but for whom the visits from the film crew or his countless letters to Helena Treštíková are often his only solace.

Awards:
WINNER of the EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY AWARD – PRIX ARTE 2008
Audience Award at Jihlava IFF 2008
GOLDEN DOVE for the Best International Documentary at DOK Leipzig 2008
MDR Film Award for en Excellent Eastern European Documentary at DOK Leipzig 2008
Best Filmmaker Award at the FILMMAKER Doc 13 International Film Festival, work and social themes, Milan 2008

Cooking History (2009)
Slovakia - 88’, Peter Kerekes

Who would have imagined that wars could also be fought with pots, pans, and pepper shakers? In contrast with classic documantations recalling war memories with Talking Heads, the Slovakian film director focuses on a particular aspect: the sensual element of war. Military chefs have a unique, and until now, unshared influence on the battlefield. "A hungry soldier doesn't feel safe," explains a sausage-wielding army cook. Feeding troops is a tactical strategy used to truly astounding results in major European conflicts of the 20th century. A Russian woman's meat blintzes provide 11 million soldiers the necessary courage to conquer in the Second World War. A Jewish prison camp breadmaker executes a plan against his Nazi captors with the only tools at his disposal. Tito's personal chef shares the state dinner menus whose warring national cuisines foretell the Balkan War itself. By turns wry and rousing, the personal stories of history's forgotten witnesses quietly humanize war's unrecorded battles and their costs. Six wars, 10 recipes, and 60,361,024 dead - Cooking History is a fascinating retelling of the past.

The director uses various stylistic devices to stage a modern soldiers‘ tale: wicked, winking and macabre.

Awards
SPECIAL MENTION of JURY at PLANETE DOC REVIEW PLANET DOCREVIEW 2009
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE – INTERNATIONAL FEATURE HOT DOCS 2009
HUGO Gold Award – Best Documentary Chicago Film Festival 2009

Prize of the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique – Leipzig DOKS 2009
Viennale's Vienna Film Prize for Best Documentary 2009

Memorimage Award to the Best Production 2009

Link: http://cookinghistory.net

 

Czech Peace (2009)- IN PRODUCTION
directed by Filip Remunda, Vít Klusák

Czech Republic, 90‘ + 60‘

As part of their Missile Defense project, the US plan to locate a military base in the Czech Republic, which used to serve as a hideaway for the Soviet nuclear rockets during the Cold War. 70% of Czechs are against the project; the government, however, proceeds with the talks… Supporters of the base use threats of the War on Terror, saying “Rogue states” can’t wait to shower the country with rockets. Opponents claim the same thing will happen if the radar is built. According to both parties concerned the war is inevitable. A pre-war comedy: Feature-length documentary about Czechs not knowing whether to invite a foreign army to the country, having experienced Soviet occupation while conscious of the current controversial War on Terror. A playful explosive film of our times…

Home Alone (2009) - IN PRODUCTION
directed by Ionut Carpatorea

Romania, 60'

This is the story of over 350.000 Romanian children left home alone. One or both their parents are working abroad, in Italy, Spain, Germany and other Western Europe countries. The kids were left living with relatives or even with neighbours. Many of them committed or attempted to commit suicide. How can one explain what they did? What did these kids think? What drove them to the point of losing everything?

Bahrtalo! (Good Luck!) (2008)
dir. Róbert Lakatos

Hungary, Austria, Germany, 80' + 60'

An original fiction documentary which follows a pair of Hungarian Borats on a journey across Europe. Lali, a moustached gypsy, and a bald guy named Lori come from Transylvania and are friends to the end. Though the failures of the charismatic duo have been many and their successes short-lived, their friendship manages to overcome all obstacles. It’s a film full of sheer Eastern European poetry, effectively portraying the clash between the spontaneous East and the more reserved West. Encouraged by the director to play themselves, the actors deal with problems in their own, usually very peculiar way. Hovering on the border between documentary and fiction, the film always maintains its creative energy and pure spontaneity.

Awards:
Winner of Europa Cinemas label at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2008

The Beetle KFZ – 1348 (2008)
dir. Gabriel Mascaro and Marcelo Pedroso

Brazil, 81’ + 48’

In 1965, a VW Beetle rolls off the production line in São Paulo. 40 years later, the same car with the license plate KFZ-1348 ends up in a scrapyard. The car’s story through its eight owners paints a portrait of modern Brazil. The first owner is a prosperous young civil engineer from São Paulo. Over four decades, the car has had seven more owners from different social classes at different points in the history of Brazil. The film goes in search of their stories, with the car as the link between the various owners and their lives as unique windows on Brazilian society.

Awards:
Special Jury Award at Sao Paulo International Film Festival

Lost Holiday (2007)
dir. Lucie Kralova

Czech Republic, 84’ + 55’

A DOCUMENTARY DETECTIVE STORY

What would you do if you found a suitcase containing 22 rolls of undeveloped film in a Swedish dumpster? This gripping detective documentary follows the fascinating journey of a Czech film crew, who on developing the negatives, put their own identity on hold to discover those of the six unknown Chinese tourists captured in the 756 snapshots. Three years later, the story becomes part of the Chinese TV industry viewed by more than 300 000 000 Chinese citizens.

How difficult is it to find 6 men in a country of 1.3 billion people? Every picture truly does tell a thousand words. A documentary about culture and identity, about memory and images, about deception and reality, the film shows that nothing is ever lost.

Awards:
Crystal Globe for Best Documentary at IFF Karlovy Vary 2007
Audience Award at Bliff 2008
Special Mention, Milano Film Festival 2008

The Return (2008)
dir. Jo Parkes and Sven O. Hill

Cambodia, UK, Germany, 78’ + 58’

Sathia lives through dance. As a child in Cambodia, she survives the brutal Khmer Rouge regime by dancing for the soldiers. After a road accident she is left in a wheelchair and accepts that she will never dance again, until she meets Katie, an English dancer, who wants her to return to the stage.

Shot in Phnom Penh, with a soundtrack created with Cambodian master musicians, the film follows Sathia when she begins to dance again, struggling to reconnect with her body and to overcome her shame in a culture in which disabled people are often excluded from society. Will Sathia manage to make her debut as Cambodia’s first professional disabled dancer? It is the story of an extraordinary friendship, following the pair in rehearsal, interview and daily life, intercut with atmospheric dance pieces shot on location in Cambodia.

The Mosquito Problem and Other Stories (2007)
dir. Andrey Paounov

Bulgaria 100‘ & 80‘ & 58‘

“Alternately delightful and disturbing.” Variety
“­An overwhelmingly beautiful film.“ Más y Más
“Startlingly original nonfiction work” New York Times
”It's a simple film that is shining like a small jewel.“ Close-up

A small town and its hopeful citizens are about to embark on a bright new journey. Massive rusty cranes, foreign investors, and the joyful chants of cheerleaders carry the dream of a great nuclear future. Disturbed only by gigantic stinging mosquitoes, the townsfolk celebrate the atomic hurray by engraving the nuclear power plant logo on buildings and soup bowls. Amidst the apparent atomic prosperity, lies a past that no one wants to remember. An island holding terrifying secrets. Stories of shocking and horrible crimes loom on the city just like the dark clouds of mosquitoes descending on its citizens. A world instantly transformed by ideologies, regimes and dreams of economic prosperity. The tales of characters whose lives intersect in a sinister past, nuclear future and the stinging mosquitoes fl­ying through time, sealing their fate together.

Awards:
Grand Prize at Sunny Side of the Doc 2008
First Prize for a full-length documentary at DOCUMENTA Madrid
The Best Documentary Award at MEDIAWAVE
The Times BFI London Film Festival Grierson Award for best feature-length documentary
Best fill-length non-feature film – Shaken’s Stars IFF 2008, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Best documentary – ASTERFEST 2008, Strumica, Macedonia
Special Mention for a full-length documentary - Karlovy Vary IFF
Honorary Mention at the 8th goEast Festival of Central and Eastern European Film
Special Mention - BRITDOC, Oxford
Human Rights Award for best regional documentary - Sarajevo FF
Grand Prix - Docufest, International Documentary and Short FF, Prizren, Kosovo
A-to-A Award for best regional documentary - Motovun FF, Croatia
Golden Rython for best cinematography to Boris Missirkov and Georgi Bogdanov - Golden Rython Festival of Bulgarian non-feature film, Plovdiv
Award of the Bulgarian National Film Center for best producer to Martichka Bozhilova - Golden Rython Festival of Bulgarian non-feature film, Plovdiv

www.themosquitoproblem.com

A Town called Hermitage (2007)
dir. Ondrej Provaznik + Martin Dusek

Czech Republic, 74‘ + 52‘

After World War II almost all of the local inhabitants, Sudeten Germans, were expelled from Dolní Poustevna (Upper Hermitage), a small town on the Czech side of the Czech-German border. During the following six decades new people have settled there. They have come from various corners of the world and built new lives in a place which is essentially without roots: A Vietnamese teenager who spends most of her time working at her family’s stall and dreams of returning to the country of her birth; a Sudeten German pensioner, who is the last of Hermitage’s pre-war inhabitants, having only been allowed to stay because the Czechs valued her skills as a maker of artificial flowers; a young Dutchman, who escaped with his family from the urban clamour of Western Europe in order to live closer to nature; a 50-year-old German engineer, who lost both his work and his family after the reunification of Germany and for whom the bars, markets and brothels of Hermitage have become a second home. Meanwhile, the mentally handicapped Luboš and his friends, who live at one of several local institutions, are ever-present fixtures in the unusual town. The film’s characters reflect Hermitage’s unexpectedly diverse community; for some of them the town is paradise, for others something closer to hell. They do not live together but alongside one another, in some respects rather like hermits.

Awards:
Best documentary of 2007 in the Czech Republic, Czech Joy Award at Jihlava Documentary Film Festival 2007

Walter Zapp - The Minox was my Life (2007)
dir. Kurt Widmer

Latvia, 52’

Photography enthusiasts know that Walter Zapp is the father of Minox, the first and revolutionary miniature camera of which more than one million copies have been sold since its invention in 1935. Because of its small size, the Minox became a legendary and sought after object for generations of spies - much to the displeasure of its inventor.

During his life, Walter Zapp was often close to success, but circumstances always prevented the final break-through. The “Minox-scandal” lead to him splitting from his own company at the end of the 1940’s and prompted his move to Switzerland where he lived and worked until his death in 2003 at the age of 97.

To see him as just another gifted inventor and constructor who was a victim of history and circumstance would be too simple. He was much more than that: a loner, dogged and persistent throughout his life who, even when on camping holidays, would always walk around in a suit and tie. Who was this man who always built whatever his family needed himself, be it a caravan with a cooker or even the house that they lived in?

Movie (2007)
dir. Ivo Trajkov

Czech Republic, Macedonia - 84’

The Director is on the verge of catastrophe: the shooting of his film was cancelled, his production company has crashed and his long love relationship with a famous actress is shattered into pieces. Instead of paying back his debts, he buys an old 8mm camera, steals his former girlfriend’s car and hits the road with a single purpose - to shoot the movie. On the road he meets The Hitchhiker, who becomes his companion on his journey. Together they meet The Girl, and soon they both find themselves attracted to her.

Shot on 8mm, this unconventional road movie combines narrative and documentary images to create an independent filmmaker’s manual, which results in an ironic introduction to the philosophy of auteur filmmaking.

Huddersfield (2007)
dir. Ivan Živkovic

Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 95’

An agitated Rasa, lives with his alcoholic father and tries to make ends meet by giving literature lessons to teenage girls and hosting a programme on the local radio. His regular morning of strong coffee and a smoke is interrupted by his neighbour, Ivan; a timid young man with a history of neurosis and involvement in various occult groups. His lover and sexy teenage student, Milla arrives for her private ‘class’ about Hamlet. Suddenly, the phone rings and Rasa is surprised to hear his close friend, Igor, is coming back to town after 10 years of living in a small town in England, Huddersfield.

That evening, Rasa, Milla, Ivan and their friend Dooleawait the arrival of Igor. The get together starts of as a cheerful high school reunion that turns into an emotional roller coaster ride or reminiscing and grim soul searching. As their life stories are revealed we realize how the final decade of post-war Serbia has left on them and their entire generation. The question is, did they all take the right decisions for a brighter future?

Awards:

Audience award at Banja Luka International Film Festival 2008
Best actor - Nebojsa Glogovac, Nis Film Fest, 2007
Award for Best Screenplay, Novy Sad, 2007

Tomorrow morning (2006)
dir. Oleg Novkovic

Serbia, 84’

After twelve years in Canada, Nele returns to his native city Belgrade to get married. Memories of the past come back when he meets his old love, friends and parents again. They spend four days together and after that nothing will be the same in their lives.

’Tomorrow morning’ is a story about love and friendship, about the need to bring back time and treasure the moment of happiness and being together, which happens only once and then never returns.

Awards:

Karlovy Vary 2006 - EAST OF THE WEST AWARD /SPECIAL MENTION - Second award.
Sopot - THE STATUE OF LIBERTY - Best film at the Festival.
Herceg Novi - GRAND PRIX 20. HFF - GREAT GOLDEN MIMOSA - Best film
Herceg Novi - GOLDEN MIMOSA for female lead role, Nada Šargin
Herceg Novi - GOLDEN MIMOSA for editing, Lazar Predojev
Herceg Novi - GOLDEN MIMOSA for music, Miroslav Mitrašinovic

Niš - CARICA TEODORA, Nada Šargin
Niš - BEST EPISODE, Nebojša Glogovac
Niš - AUDIENCE AWARD, Lazar Ristovski

IFF Alexandria - best screenwritter, MIlena Markovic
IFF Alexandria - best actress, Nada Šargin

ICFF "BROTHERS MANAKI" Bitolj - Special mention, Director of photography - Miladin COLAKOVIC

Film Festival Cottbus 2006. - Main Prize for Best Film
Film Festival Cottbus 2006. - FIPRESCI prize
Film Festival Cottbus 2006. - “from cottbus to cinema” – distribution support prize for a festival film

Minsk 2006. - best screenwritter – Milena Markovic

FIPRESCI prize awarded by Serbian critics to Oleg Novkovic as the best director in 2006
FIPRESCI prize awarded by Serbian critics to Nada Sargin as the best actress in 2006

Beyond the Forest (2007)
dir: Gerald Igor Hauzenberger

Austria – 75’

An old man lives in a small Carpathian village in the countryside of Romania. He is a Saxon. Fifty kilometres away, a woman sits at her gravestone; she is Landleri and has already lived five years past the date of death that is engraved on her stone.

The National Socialist regime turned both of them into perpetrators and into victims. Despite their difficult life stories marked by the Second World War, we can see two broken but humorous people, who witnessed the disappearance of their own culture. Their national pride forbade them to “mix” with other people. Now both of them are old, alone, and they want to die. The best thing would be to simply “disappear” from the world.

The director, Gerald Igor Hauzenberger, has been listening to both of them for six years. The result is a sensitive, yet humorous portrait of two people, which emotionally describes the history of the last century. Beautiful pictures of the Romanian landscape complete this portrait of a dying culture in Transylvania.

Awards:

FIPRESCI Award at Transilvania International Filmfestival 2007
Erasmus EUROMEDIA Sponsorship Award
Best film at Saratov Sufferings Filmfestival, Russia, 2007

Happiness and Freedom (2007)
dir: David Calek

Czech Republic - 70’

Two courageous Czech women decide to set up an organization called Berkat (Happiness) with the aim of helping war victims, especially children. Jana Hradilkova and Petra Prochazkova discover the Sputnik camp on the Chechen-Ingush border, the home of 9,000 refugees, who live not only in fear and sadness but also with joy, dance, music and art. They discover the children's dance group Marsho (Freedom) whereby they decide to organize a trip abroad for them, so that they can proudly present their national dances and music. Their aim was to allow the children to experience something other than the horrors of war, but ordinary life in a warless country. Jana and Petra devote their love, time and effort and permit the children to meet new people, gain new experiences, but most importantly, to encourage their long-lasting passion of traditional dance; the only aspect from their destroyed homeland that remains with them and excitement for life in a free world.

In a Shadow (2007)
dir. Nemanja Bala

Serbia, USA - 75’

Stories of an immigrant, a businessman, a photographer and a detective intertwine on a New York City night that begins with a mysterious death on a subway platform.

As we spend time with each character as a suspect, we witness their daily lives and learn how their status and profession create very different personal moralities in connection with the mysterious death.

This atmospheric film lyrically integrates narrative and documentary images to paint an unsettling impression of contemporary New York City.

Mitumba (2005)
dir: Raffaele Brunetti

Italy – 52’

The story about a T-shirt... and how it travelled from the North of the South of the world. It is the inside-out story of a piece of clothing’s first and second life and everything that happens in between. The tale is told by the people in volved in the second hand clothes trade and by the thoughts of a traveller. He starts out from Hamburg, Germany, shadowing a T-shirt that belonged to Felix, a 10-year old football fan. Four months later he arrives in Tanzania, at the village of Ilambilole, where the T-shirt finally reaches 9-year old Lucky, another football fan, who lives in a small village. Along the way he encounters an incredible number of people who had something to do with the T-shirt and whose livelihoods revolve around the buying and selling of second-hand clothes and shoes. Deals, people and places create the route of the used clothes trade (mitumba), a hidden and winding road that reveals a surprising reality.

Mitumba is an entertaining yet objective documentary characterized by attractive images, an excellent screenplay and a rhythm that advances the narrative of a T-shirt as a metaphor for the relationship between north and south. What do you think will happen to your worn out clothes once you donate to charity?

Awards:

Globo d’oro 2004-2005 for best documentary
Selected by Arte for Prix d’Europe 2005
Cinema del Reale - Award Cinema del Reale (Italia, 2006)
Torino Cinema Ambiente - Award Legambiente (Italia, Turin 2006)
Winner of the Napoli Film Festival (Naples, June 2007)

Záviš, the Prince of Pornofolk under the influence of Griffith’s “Intolerance” and Tati’s “Monsineur Hulot’s Holiday” or The Establition and Doom of Czechoslovakia (1918 - 1992)
dir: Karel Vachek

Czech Republic – 147’

A dog’s funeral becomes part of a chain of absurd events including a tomato ketchup battle, a reconstruction of the battle of Austerlitz and a motorbike show. Its common denominator is the commercial interest of sponsors and big business, the ambivalent winners of privatization and participants of numerous corruption affairs. Vachek debates corruption and environmental disaster, but insists that there is an alternative. Against the mass of „pseudoevents“ is the independent techno-party CzechTekk, raided by the police despite the fact that it was entirely law-abiding, whose participants are Vachek believes to be the new „unionists“.

Download the Retrospective of the Director Karel Vachek

Industrial Elegy (2006)
dir: Daniela Gebova

Czech Republic – 70’

Beauty and ugliness, sadness and joy, unreality, weirdness, and colourfulness of the emarkable place, where time has draw up. Film tells a story of the old mining settlements in the Northern Moravia and their bizarre inhabitants who migrated to this area from all corners of Europe to get a job. Now the settlements are like a god-forsaken open-air museum of an old industrial architecture and a specific way of life. A multinational mixture of characters live here together - old farmer, repairman of vintage cars, former miners and intellectuals, madmen, Romanies, children and old ladies. The absurd situations of an everyday life raise both tears and smile. At the outskirts of a former industrial city we can feel an omen to its future downfall...

An amazing documentary about the mines houses colony in Ostrava (coal miners town of the Czech Republic) and the life there after the mines were closed down. The director, Daniela Gebova, tried to catch the last opportunity to capture this disseapearing part of the world before the colony is knocked down completely.

Marcela (2006)
dir: Helena Trestikova

Czech Republic - 82’

The life of Marcela, an ordinary Czech woman is explored throughout several decades of her life. The documentary observes several important societal issues. We are engaged to struggle and fight back with Marcela as her tragic life unfolds before our eyes especially dealing with her daughter’s unexpected death which almost drives her to suicide. However, the responsibility she feels for her retarded son gives her the will to survive. The making of Marcela was initially part of a six-part series on Czech television about the fate of six married couples but the events that happened throughout Marcela’s life arose a wave of solidarity from the Czech public who sent her money and personal support. This was the reason why Helena Treštíková decided to focus solely on a documentary about Marcela. The distressing destiny of Marcela’s life and the act of human support from the Czech public was therefore, worthy to be expressed in this film. She is currently looking forward for a better future.

Awards:

Grand Prize at CRONOGRAF Film Festival, Moldova 2008
Best documentary at Ismailia International Film Festival 2007
Best European documentary at Festival de Cine de Sevilla 2007
Honourable Mention Award at 36th Lubuskie Film Summer – Lagów 2007
Award for Best Czech Documentary 2007 at Finale Plzen Film Festival, Plzen, Czech Republic

Go West (2005)
dir: Ahmed Imamovic

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia – 97’

Gay lovers Kenan, a Muslim cellist, and Milan, a Serbian student, fight to survive the brutal inter-ethnic wars of early ’90s in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their intimate and public life is marked by a growing aggression and hatred. The lovers decide to flee to Milan’s home village and hide at Milan’s father Ljubo.They want to get to Netherlands from there. With growing brutality of the Serbian units and their hatred against Muslims, Milan doesn’t want to risk and convinces Kenan to dress up as a woman. He is presenting him as a his girlfriend Milena. Milan is called up which makes the situation unbearable for Kenan. Waitress Ranka, who is avoided by local village people, becomes Milena’s only companion. It has fatal consequances for her...

Ahmed Imamovic achieved worldwide success with his first film named 10 minutes, which won the award for the Best European Short Film.
GO WEST is his first feature, which premiered at World Film Festival Montreal. At Thessaloniky IFF the film received the award of the audience for the Best Film. At Festival du Cinema Montpellier the film received Critics award and Audience award.

The Rules of Lies (2006)
dir: Robert Sedlacek

Czech Republic – 119’

Twelve recovering drug addicts attempt to clean themselves up at a makeshift rehab center – a remote farmhouse in the middle of the countryside. They have committed every sin imaginable: they have lied, stolen, cheated, thought only of themselves, and one has even murdered. What should be long forgotten has returned, and a bomb is ticking beneath the community. Will the truth come out? If the truth is what people remember.... They fall in love and forgive, and seek out their better selves with only each other to rely on. But can a person completely stop lying and still survive among other humans?

CRITICS AWARD for the Best Czech Film of 2006
CZECH LION AWARD for the Best script
Kristian prize for the Best feature films at Febiofest 2007
Film Culture Club Award at 36th Lubuskie Film Summer – Lagów 2007


Pictures at the website: www.pravidlalzi.cz
To order a screener, please email: sales@taskovskifilms.com

Other Worlds (2006)
dir: Marko Škop

Slovak Republic, Czech Republic – 75’

Six heroes lead a different way of life than we know from television. They live traditions and follow customs and try to be faithful to the heritage of their ancestors. And yet, some of them long to become famous and be seen on TV. Even at this so-called end of the world, globalization changes their lives. Eastern Slovakia became a “melting pot” of many religions, nationalities and cultures but in reality we live a different life than is presented by media nowadays.

Audience and Special Jury Awards at 41st Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2006 Euro Media Award, Vienna, 2006 Prize of the Film Culture Club, 36the LLF Lagów, 2006

To order a screener, please email: sales@taskovskifilms.com

The Art of Selling (2006)
dir: Jaak Kilmi, Andres Maimik Estonia – 86’& 59’


The young democracy explores the practices of the market economy. Eager for change, Raigo, a young student of theology and Mare, rather passive middle aged widow, together with several others try their luck in the selling business. All you need to do is follow the path of Peep, estonian star in motivation training, or Evelin, who in just a few years turned from a dull mother of twins into a happy, emancipated and successful bussiness woman. But is everything in life a matter of how you sell yourself? Can Evelin’s motto „manipulate and be manipulated“ lead everyone to happiness? And does the church really sell God?

To order a screener, please email: sales@taskovskifilms.com

Half Past Three (2006)
dir:Tomáš Hodan
Czech Republic - 75’

Peculiar and unconventional people living in a peculiar and unconventional place. Get to know uneasy life of several individuals who weren’t able to choose their destiny, but who refuse to grumble about it. Transcarpathia is a place where the flow of time has stopped, but it doesn’t really bother anyone. If you don‘t have enough to buy milk you must find a cow. If your house burns down, you must build a new one. But if there is a holiday, one must make a vodka…

To order a screener, please email: sales@taskovskifilms.com

One Love (2006)
dir: Petr Zahradka
Czech Republic – 79’

The Rastafarians in Ethiopia have been celebrating the 73rd anniversary of the coronation of Ethiopia's last Emperor, Haile Selassie, whom they consider to be reincarnated God and the Messiah of the African people. The Rastafarians, who are mainly from the Caribbean, the USA and the UK, started migrating to Ethiopia in 1955, when Haile Selassie gave 500 hectares of land to any African that wished to return to where their ancestors were taken from to become slaves.

To order a screener, please email: sales@taskovskifilms.com

Czech Dream (2004)
dir. Vít Klusák & Filip Remunda
Czech Republic - 87' & 58'

CZECH DREAM documents the largest consumer hoax the Czech Republic has ever seen. Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak, two of Eastern Europe's most promising young documentary filmmakers, set out to explore the psychological and manipulative powers of consumerism by creating an ad campaign for something that didn't exist.

CZECH DREAM is a funny and provocative look at the effects of rampant consumerism on a post-communist society. CZECH DREAM has also caused some controversy, provoking extreme reactions in the Czech people and media and even being discussed in Czech Parliament.

With the recent entry of the Czech Republic and other Eastern European countries to the EU, and, with people's changing attitudes to consumerism and globalisation, it is equally relevant to capitalist societies all over the world.

For more details, see the following news story:

Asthetica Magazine: Czech Dream Review - Nov. 25. 2005

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Gravehopping (2005)
dir. Jan Cvitkovic
Slovenia, Croatia - 103'

In rural Slovenia Pero lives close to death, writing speeches for the town funerals while trying to intercept his fathers frequent, but farcically inept, suicide attempts.

Astoundingly dark, in parts hilarious, and always dramatic Gravehopping is a tale of relationships in a small community: one of Pero's sisters, deaf and mute, falls for the local mechanic, while the other copes with a no-good husband. Pero himself tries to win the heart of local girl Renata.

A courageous attempt to tackle the biggest forces of human existence, fear and love, the film leads up to a finale that leaves the otherwise eloquent Pero literally speechless.

Awards:
IFF San Sebastian 2005 award Alatadis - for best first and second film of festival | IFF Warsaw award SEECN - best film by accredited industry professionals | IFF Cottbus Award for Best film, Award for Best Film by Ecumenical Jury | IFF Torino Award for Best film by Festival Jury, Award for best Script | IFF Ljubljana, Special Jury Mention Award | Slovene Film Festival Portorož 2005 Award for the best Slovene film 2005, Awards for best side actor and actress | IFF Spirit of fire 2006 Khanty Mansisk Silver Tayga - second best film Award, Award for most impressive film scene | IFF Sofia, No Man's Land - Best Balkan Film Award | IFF Festroia Setubal, Silver Dolphin Award - second best film, Award CICAE | IFF Palic - Golden Tower - best film of the festival | IFF Pecs : award for Best Cinematographer, Award for Best Actor, Audience Award | IFF Torun Special Jury award, Award Zygmund | Kaluzynski - for most extraordinary scene in film | IFF Nordeliijk: Student Jury Award | Slovenian candidate for Oscar Award for foreign language film

For more details, see the following news stories:

Screen International: Gravehopping Review - Nov. 29. 2005

Gravehopping and Clouds of Yesterday share honours at Turin - Nov 20. 2005

Gravehopping, winner of Cottbus - Nov. 13. 2005

Gravehopping wins Best Central & East European Film - Oct. 17. 2005

Gravehopping wins the Altadis - New Directors Award - Sept. 25. 2005

Gravehopping: Death? He wears it well. - Sept. 22. 2005

Spain's Alta snaps up Gravehopping - Sept. 22. 2005

World Premiere Gravehopping  in official competition at San Sebastian Film Festival - Sept. 13. 2005

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Source (2005)
dir. Martin Marecék
Czech Republic - 75' & 58'

Baku in Azerbaijan, the site of the world's first oil well, is once again becoming a focus for foreign investors eager to exploit the country's vast oil riches.

"Source" traces the pipeline from our commuter highways back to this surreal and sinister landscape on which our way of life depends, where cows graze on polluted land and children play in toxic gunge.

With three quarters of the population living under the poverty line, the country's post-Soviet government is promising oil will turn Azerbaijan into a 'real country', a prosperous and flourishing 'New Kuwait'.

But between big oil companies like British Petroleum and the corrupt government lining their pockets, what does this mean for the ordinary people of Azerbaijan? Is this "liquid gold" more of a curse than a blessing for this troubled country?

Awards:

DOKfest in Leipzig 2005 - Best Eastern-European documentary
Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival 2005 - Audience Award and Best Czech Documentary of 2005
Cinemambiente in Torino, Italy 2006 - Audience Award
21 éme Festival International du Film Nature et Environnement" in Grenoble, France, 2007 - Main Award
One World International Human Rights Festival 2005 - Audience Award and the Special Jury Award
Festival in Ceský Krumlov 2005 - Prix of Ekofilm and the Award of the Ministry of Environment

To order a screener, please email: sales@taskovskifilms.com

The Shukta Book Of Records (2005)
dir. Aleksandar Manic
Czech Republic 78'

Shutka is the largest Roma community in the Balkans, maybe in the whole world.

To do it justice, or possibly to counterbalance what Shutka lacks, its inhabitants constantly compete for the champion title in every discipline imaginable. Who is the best at protecting the community from evil spirits, who the greatest singer of all?

Meet the lamb champion for the last 35 years, the champion in boxing, fashion, sex and wait to see who will win the Turkish music cassette competition. It is not important to participate, just important to win. Dr Koljo ( one of Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat characters) accompanies us as the narrator and introduces various characters who perform their own stories.

Director Manic weaves images reminiscent of silent films into colour images and enchants with magic tricks as he follows an invisible thread through this refreshing documentary. The result is a cheerful and personal portrayal of the microcosm that is Shutka.

Selection of Awards:
Main prize for the Best Documentary, International Documentary Film Festival of Mexico 2007
Grand Prize for the best film of festival, Egypt Int. Documentary Film Festival Ismailia 2006
Honorary diploma for directing and camera from the Czech Film and TV Association 2006
Audience Award Documenta Madrid IDFF 2006 for the best Non-Spanish Documentary Film
Grand Prix Golden Wheel, IFF Skopje, Macedonia 2006
Golden Arena FIPRESCI Award for best feature film from Serbia & Monte Negro, Novi Sad Film Festival 2005
Golden Audience Award for most popular feature film from Serbia & Monte Negro in Novi Sad Film Festival 2005
Amnesty International Slovenia Award, Ljubljana IFF 2005

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Justice Unseen (2004)
dir. Aldin Arnautovic & Refik Hodzic
Bosnia and Herzegovina - 58'

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the UN to provide justice to victims of war crimes which were committed during nineties, and to help the reconciliation process in the region.

Eleven years and more than 830 million dollars later, the film looks at the situation in two Bosnian communities, Prijedor and Konjic. Has the ICTY achieved what it was set up to do or was it just and expensive legal experiment?

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Russia / Chechnya Voices of Dissent (2005)
dir. Carlo Nero
UK - 47'

In September 2004 the world woke up to one of the most atrocious terrorist attacks since 9/11.  

The siege by Chechen rebels of a school in Beslan, Southern Russia, ended in the death of hundreds of civilians, the majority of whom were children. Who is really to blame for such incomprehensible acts of violence?  

Through the voices of Russian dissidents, Chechen leaders, and human rights campaigners, this film attempts to dig into the roots of the Russian/Chechen conflict and to expose the extent to which current Russian policies are causing acts of terror to escalate.

The film shows how the rhetoric of the so called 'War on Terror' is allowing the continuation of a totalitarian regime, where internal opposition or Dissent are suppressed, under the guise of a democratic Government.

To order a screener, please email: sales@taskovskifilms.com