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} .contentLogoAlign { padding-left: 59px; } .sectiontitle { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: bold; color: #000000; text-decoration: none; padding-left: 30px; } .contentLeft { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal; color: #333333; text-decoration: none; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; padding-right: 3px; padding-left: 20px; padding-top: 156px; } .contentRight { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-weight: normal; color: #333333; text-decoration: none; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; padding-right: 20px; padding-left: 3px; padding-top: 156px; } .textHighlight { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-weight: bold; color: #BF2222; text-decoration: none; } ul { vertical-align: middle; } li { vertical-align: middle; list-style-type: none; } </style> </head> <body class="homeBack"> <table width="772" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="167" valign="top"> <div class="contentLeft"> <div class="textHighlight"> Latest<br /> articles:</div> <br /> <a href="news.htm#newsu" class="regularLink"> <br /> The Shutka Book of Records on Channel 4, The Guardian</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Jun 4.th 2008</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newst" class="regularLink"> <br /> Email from Copenhagen, Denmark</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Sep 8.th 2007</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsr" class="regularLink"> <br /> Marcela - Variety review, Karlovy Vary Film Festival</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Jul 9.th 2007</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsp" class="regularLink"> <br /> Czech Dream is first Czech documentary distributed in USA</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Jun 15.th 2007</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newso" class="regularLink"> <br /> Film New Europe: Newcomer Taskovski Films aims for another hit </a> <br /> <span class="newsDate">Jun 6.th 2007</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsn" class="regularLink"> <br /> Variety review, Beyond the Forest - Einst suesse Heimat</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Jun 6.th 2007</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newss" class="regularLink"> <br /> Rules of Lies - Pravidla lzi</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">May 7.th 2007</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsm" class="regularLink"> <br /> Variety review, Black Nights Film Festival The Art Of Selling - Muumise Kunst</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Dec 2.nd 2006</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsq" class="regularLink"> <br /> Tomorrow Morning - Sutra Ujutru, Karlovy Vary Film Festival</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Jul 7.th 2006</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsl" class="regularLink"> <br /> Variety: Helmers bring immigrant vision to Euro pix Abu Assad working on 'Cairo,' Traidia to make 'Bottles'</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Dec 18.th 2005</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsk" class="regularLink"> <br /> Screen International: Gravehopping Review</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Nov 29.th 2005</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsj" class="regularLink"> <br /> Asthetica Magazine: Czech Dream Review</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Nov 25.th 2005</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsi" class="regularLink"> <br /> Gravehopping and Clouds of Yesterday share honours at Turin</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Nov 20.th 2005</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsh" class="regularLink"> <br /> Gravehopping, winner of Cottbus</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Nov 13.th 2005</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsg" class="regularLink"> <br /> SOURCE wins the Audience and Best Czech Film award</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Oct 30.th 2005</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newsf" class="regularLink"> <br /> Gravehopping wins Best Central &amp; East European Film</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Oct 17.th 2005</span><br /> <a href="news.htm#newse" class="regularLink"> <br /> Source wins two awards in one week</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Oct 16.th 2005</span><br /> <br /> <a href="news.htm#newsd" class="regularLink">Gravehopping wins the Altadis - New Directors Award</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Sept. 25th 2005</span><br /> <br /> <a href="news.htm#newsc" class="regularLink">Gravehopping: Death? He wears it well.</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Sept. 22nd 2005</span><br /> <br /> <a href="news.htm#newsb" class="regularLink">Spain's Alta snaps up Gravehopping</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Sept. 22nd 2005<br /> </span> <br /> <a href="news.htm#newsa" class="regularLink">World Premiere Gravehopping in official competition at San Sebastian Film Festival</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">Sept. 13th 2005</span><br /> <br /> <a href="news.htm#news0" class="regularLink">Source - Zdroj, Variety review, Karlovy Vary Film Festival</a><br /> <span class="newsDate">July 7th 2005<br /> </span> <br /> <p> &nbsp;</p> </div> </td> <td width="435" class="contentFilmstripBack"> <div class="contentLogoAlign"> <img src="img/site/contentlogo.gif" width="314" height="89" alt="" /> </div> <table width="433" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td> <div class="contentMenuBack"> <a href="index.htm" class="menuLink">HOME</a> &nbsp;::&nbsp; <a href="news.htm" class="menuLink"> NEWS</a> &nbsp;::&nbsp; <a href="films.htm" class="menuLink">Films</a> &nbsp;::&nbsp; <a href="about.htm" class="menuLink">About Us</a><br /> <br /> </div> </td> </tr> </table> <div class="sectiontitle"> NEWS</div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newsu"></a><strong>Last night's TV  The Shutka Book of Records on Channel 4, UK Sam Wollaston, The Guardian</strong> <br /> <span class="newsDate">Wednesday June 4, 2008</span><br /> <br /> <p> Ever wanted to get really drunk, sit on a goose and dance like a dervish? Then follow me ...</p> <p> I've been worrying about where to go on holiday this year. I don't like beaches, or swimming pools, pretty whitewashed villages, bougainvillea, sightseeing, calamari, the sound of crickets. I don't like camping, waterproof clothing, being outside - any of that. I don't like France, Italy, Spain or Scotland - especially Scotland. What I really want to do on holiday is get really drunk and sit on a goose. Then I want to disco dance like a dervish (or, better still, with a dervish) to Who Let the Dogs Out. I want to rob graves and watch young men boxing while off their heads on methadone. I want to stick metal skewers through my cheeks and go vampire-hunting. I want to go to a circumcision and then get even more drunk. And if there's a competition as to who has the most impressive collection of Turkish music cassettes, then that would be the icing on the cake. And now, at last, I've found a place that offers all of the above. It's called Shutka and it's in Macedonia.</p> <p> You won't find Shutka - Roma capital of the Balkans, possibly the world - in any tourist brochures. I can't even find it on the map. But it looks like a brilliant place. And this, True Stories: The Shutka Book of Records (More4), is a brilliant film. It must have been a difficult pitch, and hats off to whoever had the foresight and imagination to fund it. So you want to make a really long documentary about a Gypsy town that simply zooms in on the lives of several of the inhabitants, most of whom are middle-aged men? Top idea, here's a whole bunch of money.</p> <p> But hats off mostly to Aleksandar Manic, whose film this is. His device for stringing it all together is a joy: that in this place of superlatives, everyone is king of something. So Uncle Fazli is champion dervish; he can make a cucumber into a living being, or dematerialise you and rematerialise you in America, even if you don't have a visa. There are two people called Muzo, one a champion of poverty, the other of words. Alfonso is champion of sex, Zedo is the champion graverobber. There's some dispute about who is champion of training fighting geese, and also who is champion goose. </p> <p> The birds train with the boxers and are sat on to make their legs stronger. Uncle Jasher is champion of Turkish music cassettes (he does have 2,614, after all). Even our guide and narrator, Doctor Koljo, who is not afraid to laugh at his own community, is a champion - of fishing. </p> <p> Everyone is laughing (when they're not fighting): at each other, with each other, on their own. I certainly was, throughout, and that's not something you can often say about a long documentary, with subtitles, about one of the world's poorest and most persecuted peoples. But that is precisely the beauty of this film. It is not about feeling sorry for the Roma, about hand-wringing and heartstring-tugging. It's a celebration - of their culture, humour, spirit, oddities and idiosyncrasies. And about the amazing music they make - the soundtrack to the film is, I imagine, what you'd hear if you simply wandered around Shutka. </p> <p> Oh, and hats off to one more person: Dominik Miskovsky, director of photography, because it all looks so beautiful. You could pause any moment and have a beautiful still shot of life in Shutka. It does help that these people have the best faces in the world - so much expression. Aleksandar Manic is certainly champion of making memorable television. This was a lovely documentary, a party of a film.</p> <p> How to get there then? None of the travel agents seem to go. I don't even know where to fly to. Skopje maybe? Got it: I'll get Uncle Fazli the champion dervish to rematerialise me in Shutka. And I have his number; he says it on the programme: Shutka 651825. The international operator says the code for Shutka is 00 389 2 (so it does exist: I was beginning to wonder if the whole thing was an elaborate joke). But when I add Fazli's six digits, I just get a continuous tone. Probably quite lucky. I can't remember how you say rematerialise in Macedonian.</p> <p> <em><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/04/television.tvandradioarts"> Taken from</a> http://www.guardian.co.uk/ - June 4, 2008</em> </p> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newst"></a><strong>Email from 8 September 2007:</strong> <br /> <p> <i>Dear Mr Cvitkovic<br /> My name is Lina Pilgaard 34 y.o. from Denmark. I have to thank you and your cast for "Od groba do groba". What a laugh and a cry. And the music is absolutely great :) Hope you'll have big success as a filmmaker.<br /> <br /> Greetings from Copenhagen, Denmark</i></p> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newsr"></a><strong>Marcela - Variety review, Karlovy Vary Film Festival</strong> <br /> (Documentary - Czech Republic)<br /> <span class="newsDate">9 July 2007</span><br /> <br /> <p> <img src="img/content/marcela/marcela-news.jpg" alt="Marcela" width="190" height="106" border="1" align="right" />An Aerofilms release (in the Czech Republic) of a Negativ production. (International sales: Taskovski Films, London.) Produced by Katerina Cerna, Pavel Strnad, Anna Beckova. Directed, written by Helena Trestikova. </p> <p> With: Marcela Haverlandova, Ivana Haverlandova, Jiri Haverland.</p> <p> Muted, respectful and tinged with mystery as it traces 26 years in the life of its title citizen.</p> <p> Every bit as monumental in their depiction of average subjects aging in front of the camera as Michael Apted's "Up" series, Czech helmer Helena Trestikova's half-dozen "Marriage Etudes" skeins continue to break ground in the long-term docu arena. Muted, respectful and tinged with mystery as it traces 26 years in the life of its title citizen, project offshoot "Marcela" could very well be the pic that moves Trestikova and her work into the international spotlight, with fest berths, arthouse play and ancillary life.</p> <p> From the moment she marries stuffy-looking Jiri Haverland in 1980, affable 20-year-old equestrienne Marcela Rosol seems to want for two things in the world: a man to love her and an apartment large enough to call home. </p> <p> Yet life, as John Lennon famously composed at about the same time, "is what happens when you're busy making other plans." Their baby, Ivana, is born in 1981, and shortly thereafter Marcela leaves Jiri, apparently due in part to a mutual dislike of their mothers-in-law. A messy divorce, the first of many hospital stays and an ill-advised reconciliation later, Jiri is gone for good. </p> <p> Later, on the eve of the new millennium, with a developmentally challenged son, Tomas, by a never-seen suitor, Marcela is still looking for a good man and a larger flat. Struggling with Tomas' care and the lack of solid work for her and the now-grown Ivana, she takes comfort in a hinted-at circle of friends who relax listening to country music. </p> <p> Ivana is found dead under suspicious circumstances on the way home from work in late 2005, and this plunges Marcela into despair. Czech tube airings of her story lead to offscreen donations and shows of support -- including, incredibly enough, a phone stalker. "Why must it always happen to me?" Marcela wonders of her relentless misfortune. </p> <p> Yet through these travails, she doggedly refuses to throw in the towel. "We must live the kind of life we won't be ashamed of," she says at one point during the years, though she continues to wonder, "Why are we here, what's the point of living?" </p> <p> Like most people, Marcela is a contradiction, and there are as many ways to interpret her choices as there are eyes to see them. Ultimately, she comes off as that greatest of Czech vernacular compliments, "a fighter." </p> <p> "I rather listen than talk," says Trestikova, who can be glimpsed helping Marcela after she faints while placing Ivana's ashes in a columbarium. This is a succinct description of her confident helming style, blending Frederick Wiseman's cool impartiality and the passionate social profiling of Barbara Kopple. </p> <p> Tech work is fluid and seamless. Pic won the feature docu prize at the Plzen fest for local product. </p> <p> Camera (color/B&W), Jan Malir, Miroslav Soucek, Vlastimil Hamernik; editors, Alois Fisarek, Lenka Polesna, Zdenek Patocka; sound (Dolby Digital), Zbynek Mikulik, Petr Provaznik, Jan Valach. Reviewed at Karlovy Vary Film Festival (Czech Films 2006-2007), July 6, 2007. Running time: 81 MIN.</p> <p> <span class="boldText"><a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&peopleID=1436"> EDDIE COCKRELL</a></span> <br /> <em>Taken from Variety review, Karlovy Vary Film Festival - 9 July 2007</em> <br /> <br /> To order a screener, please email: <a href="mailto:info@taskovskifilms.com" class="regularLink"> info@taskovskifilms.com</a></p> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newsp"></a><a name="PragueMonitor"></a><strong>Czech Dream is first Czech documentary distributed in USA</strong><br /> <span class="newsDate">15 June 2007</span><br /> <br /> <p> New York, June 14 (CTK) - Controversial film Czech Dream on a fictitious supermarket directed by Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda will be the first Czech documentary to be released in the U.S. distribution network, Remunda told CTK before Friday's distribution premiere of the documentary in New York.</p> <p> A total of 22 Czech feature films have been released in U.S. cinemas in the past 10 years. Czech Dream has already been shown in New York, and it won one of the main awards for documentary films at the San Francisco international film festival in 2005. The film has also been positively reviewed in the Timeout and Village Voice journals and in New York Magazine.</p> <p> The Museum of Modern Art in New York this week announced to the film-makers that it would buy the film for its permanent cinematographic collection. Americans have more sensitively perceived the relation between politics and advertisement in the film than the Czech audience, Remunda told.</p> <p> "The interconnection between marketing and politics has been broadly discussed in the USA. Someone even used the comparison that Czech Dream is for Americans something like mass destruction weapons in Iraq. The government threatens with them and justified the attack on Iraq by them, however the weapons were not found there. So it was also such a media fiasco," Remunda noted.</p> <p> The film is based on mystification about the opening of a new super supermarket chain ironically called "Czech Dream" with super-cheap goods. Using very convincing professional ads, the film-makers persuaded several hundred shoppers to gather for the shop opening and shot their reactions before and after they found out they were grossly lured by the massive advertising campaign.</p> <p> Discussions about the film in the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia and Serbia rather concerned such topics as the transition to capitalism and market economy and the rising consumerism, Remunda said. "These topics are also being debated in the USA, but for Americans the role of the media in democracy and their use for gaining 'political points' or for manipulating public opinion play a very important role," Remunda added.</p> <p> Americans have also expressed different opinions about mystification as a method on which the documentary is based. Remunda recalls that the irony and specific humour in the film was not easily comprehensible for some U.S. spectators.</p> <p> Czech Dream has been released in cinemas in the neighbouring Slovakia, in Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland and in Slovenia. The film, represented in the USA by SchwarzSmith of independent distributor Irena Kovarova from New York and British Taskovski Films, will be shown in the IFC Center in New York for a week.</p> <p> "If the film scores success, other cinemas and other cities have been preliminarily planned - for instance in Seattle, Hartford and Columbus," Kovarova told CTK.</p> <p> <span class="boldText">Prague Daily Monitor / TK/</span> <br /> <em><a href="http://launch.praguemonitor.com/en/107/cinema_in_prague/8223/">Taken from</a> Czech News Agency ( TK) - 15 June 2007</em> <br /> </p> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newso"></a><strong>Film New Europe: Newcomer Taskovski Films aims for another hit </strong> <br /> <span class="newsDate">6 June 2007</span><br /> <br /> <p> British-Czech Taskovski Films, a relative newcomer on the Czech market, is aiming for another hit with the imminent release of Rules of Lies, already a triple prize winner. </p> <p> The film, budgeted at $700,000 (¬ $520,000), won an Audience Award at the recent Pilsen film festival in April, and also captured both a Czech Lion for best script and a "Kristian," the Czech critics' prize for most remarkable film of 2006. It tells the stories of 12 people who are placed in a treatment centre away from the civilised world as the try to untangle their complicated pasts. </p> <p> Taskovski started international exposure of the film at the Marche du Film in Cannes in May. Rules of Lies will be also shown at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which runs from June 29 to July 7. The film has been sold to several European countries including Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Italy. It will also be shown on Czech and Slovak HBO. </p> <p> Taskovski Films was founded in 2003 to produce and sell independent fare from Central and Eastern Europe. Its first release was a smash hit: the documentary Czech Dream (2004) made by two film school students, Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda. Czech Dream, about the launch of a virtual dime store in Prague preceded by a virtual PR campaign, turned out to be one of the most successful Czech films abroad. It was sold to 15 European countries and opens this month in the U.S. </p> <p> Though barely four years old, Taskovski already has a cache of 25 films, including the Slovenian film Gravehopping by Jan Cvitkovic. Gravehopping was shown at Cannes this year. The company list also includes the Czech documentary The Shutka Book of Records (2005) made by the Prague-based Serb Aleksander Manic, about the bittersweet life of a Romany community living near Skopje, Macedonia. Both films were sold to 12 countries. </p> <p> Taskovski also represents Marcela by the renowned Czech documentary maker Helena Trestikova. Marcela won the main prize at the Pilsen festival in April.</p> <p> <span class="boldText">Radovan Holub</span> <br /> <em><a href="http://www.filmneweurope.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=87&Itemid=52"> Link</a></em> <br /> </p> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newsn"></a><strong>Variety review, Beyond the Forest - Einst suesse Heimat<br /> </strong><span class="newsDate">6 June 2007</span><br /> <br /> <p> <img src="img/content/beyond-the-forest/beyond-the-forest.jpg" alt="Beyond the Forest" width="133" height="200" border="1" align="right">A Golden Girls Filmproduktion prod. Produced by Arash, Gerald Igor Hauzenberger, Geza Horvat. Directed, written by Gerald Igor Hauzenberger.</p> <p> With: Johann Schuff, Maria Huber, Hilda Fielk.</p> <p> The nostalgic flavor of Gerald Igor Hauzenberger's lyrically expressive docu "Beyond the Forest" is better served by its original title, "A Once Sweet Homeland," than by the literal English-language translation of Transylvania. Almost anthropological in spirit if it wasn't for Hauzenberger's painterly compositions, the docu focuses on a time when this patch of Romania was once a proud Germanic enclave. "Forest" may trouble those wanting a less-objective take on unapologetically expressed racism, but the impartial stance better suits this important record of a vanishing world. Fests should take note.</p> <p> Hauzenberger explored Teutonic culture in Transylvania for six years, settling on two unacquainted relics of the disappearing community for his straightforward vision. Johann Schuff, descended from Saxon settlers, is the philosophical one, bitter and self-pitying in recounting his life on the losing side of WWII. Maria Huber, of Landler stock, regrets the loss of community, but despite five years in a Soviet gulag following the War, her home-centric outlook betrays tiredness more than melancholy. Old school social Darwinists, both subjects welcome approaching mortality. Hauzenberger's coolly observational eye is backed by bucolic lensing. </p> <p> Camera (color), Dominik Spritzendorfer, Marco F. Zimprich, Hauzenberger; editor, Michael Palm, Hauzenberger; music, Probstdorfer Blaskapelle; sound, Spritzendorfer, Martin Zinggl; sound design, Nina Slatosch. Reviewed on DVD in Rome, Italy, Feb. 20, 2007. (In Rotterdam Film Festival -- Cinema of the World.) Original title: Einst suesse Heimat. Running time: 75 MIN </p> <p> <span class="boldText"><a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&peopleID=2321"> Jay Weissberg</a></span> <br /> <br /> To order a screener, please email: <a href="mailto:info@taskovskifilms.com" class="regularLink"> info@taskovskifilms.com</a></p> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newss"></a><strong>Rules of Lies - Pravidla Lzi<br /> </strong>(Czech Republic)<br /> <span class="newsDate">7 May 2007</span><br /> <br /> <p> <img src="img/content/the-rules-of-lies/the-rules-of-lies-news.jpg" alt="Rules of Lies" width="200" height="133" border="1" align="right">A Radim Prochazka production. Produced by Prochazka. Directed, written by Robert Sedlacek.</p> <p> With: Jiri Langmajer, David Svehlik, Martin Stransky, Martin Trnavsky, Klara Issova, Igor Chmela, Jan Budar, Petra Jungmanova. </p> <p> A dozen recovering addicts deal with their demons and deceit in the densely textured, confidently thesped drama "Rules of Lies." Winner of two prizes, including an aud award, at the recent Finale Plzen fest, pic has has already been announced for the East of the West competish section at Karlovy Vary. Modest local biz following a late 2006 preem in a crowded holiday marketplace won't impede fest action abroad, limited arthouse exposure and decent ancillary. </p> <p> In a rambling rural farmhouse, three counselors (including "Grandhotel" ingenue Klara Issova) are overseeing 11 volunteer patients on the long road to recovery. At the story's opening, they're joined by Roman (David Svehlik), a successful small-businessman whose seven-year addiction to cocaine and crystal meth has landed him in rehab. </p> <p> The group is polite but stern at first, forcing him into the ritual of "unlocking the pond" by jumping in -- no mean feat in the dead of winter. But soon fissures begin to show in the veneer of civility. Though they're asked repeatedly if they know one another from the outside, there's a whiff of unfinished business between Roman and the manipulative Milan (Jiri Langmajer). </p> <p> As time progresses, the web of verbal deceit is punctured by the memory of and fallout from a previous encounter, sparked by something dimly remembered by ex-junkie Tom (Igor Chmela). </p> <p> Debuting writer-director Robert Sedlacek creates a tangible sense of foreboding among these damaged individuals. More noteworthy is his determined avoidance of sensationalism; from the opening frames, there's a sense that Sedlacek the writer will take his time creating these characters, and the film as a whole is better for it. Purposely ambiguous wrap-up may not be to everyone's taste, but is in keeping with the idea that life is full of variables. </p> <p> Ensemble perfs are on the mark, with Langmajer in particular tapping into an intense level of menace. Tech credits are discreetly pro. </p> <p> Camera (color), Petr Koblovsky; editor, Matous Outrata; music, Tomas Kympl; production designer, Tomas Chlud; costume designer, Chlud; sound (Dolby Digital), Martin Vecera. Reviewed on DVD, Sydney, April 30, 2007. (In Finale Plzen, Karlovy Vary film festivals.) Running time: 119 MIN. </p> <p> <span class="boldText"><a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&peopleID=1436"> Eddie Cockrell</a></span> <br /> <br /> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newsm"></a><strong>Variety review, Black Nights Film Festival <br /> The Art Of Selling - Muumise Kunst<br /> </strong><span class="newsDate">2 December 2006</span><br /> <br /> <p> <img src="img/content/art-of-selling/art-of-selling-news.jpg" alt="The Art of Selling" width="200" height="280" border="1" align="right">A Kuukulgur Film Ou, Making Movies Oy production, in association with YLE FST, VRPO, DR TV, ETV, LRT, with the support of the Estonian Film Foundation, Estonian Culture Endowment, Finnish Film Foundation. (International sales: Taskovski Films, Prague.) Produced by Jaak Kilmi, Kaarle Aho. Directed, written by Andres Maimik, Jaak Kilmi. </p> <p> With: Peep Vain, Raigo Saariste, Mare Pannel. (Estonian, English dialogue) </p> <p> Gently revealing docu "The Art of Selling" depicts three Estonian salespeople -- two amateurs and one pro -- trying to make a few fast bucks (or rather, a few fast krooni, the Estonian national currency). Although originally made for TV, this digitally shot effort by Eesti talents Andres Maimik ("Kurat tuleb sauna") and Jaak Kilmi ("Revolution of Pigs") is rich enough in human interest and tongue-in-cheek humor to qualify pic for fest airings. "Art," however, will be a harder sell to theatrical distribs outside the Baltics and Scandinavia.</p> <p> Made up of three separate but interwoven stories and made over the course of a year or so, docu tracks the fortunes of a troika of contrasting personalities.</p> <p> Motivational speaker Peep Vain is far and away the most successful of the lot. Although born and raised in Estonia, he learned the shiller's arts by working for Southwestern, the long-established, U.S.-based door-to-door textbook company that recently began vigorously recruiting in the Baltics. Now the not-inaptly-named Vain is back on home turf -- equipped with the requisite wireless microphone, PowerPoint slides and American-style can-do attitude -- to teach the locals how to make it in the biz world.</p> <p> The camera picks two people, Raigo Saariste and Mare Pannel, who've paid to hear Vain's speil. Laidback college student Raigo decides to join Southwestern himself, thinking it might be one way to learn English and have a Stateside summer vacation. However, his poor salesmanship and manifest lack of enthusiasm for his employer's products make for a bumpy ride. In the pic's latter half, when Raigo finally makes it to Southwestern's headquarters in Tennessee for training, the very fact that he's being filmed by a camera crew gets him in a whole heap of trouble.</p> <p> Provincial housewife Mare, meanwhile, tries her hand at selling Tupperware. Like Raigo, she shows little aptitude for sales, but she does become a passionate consumer of a newly imported brand of fundamentalist Christianity, eventually leaving Tupperware to devote herself full-time to her church.</p> <p> Pic is hardly in the same league as Albert and David Maysles' sublime 1969 docu classic "Salesman," but it, too, focuses substantially on lives of quiet desperation. Both Raigo and Mare in particular come across as fantasists, seduced by the new consumer culture that has only recently invaded Estonia. Vain is more savvy and sharkish, but helmers Maimik and Kilmi nevertheless treat him with even-handed sympathy, and catch him looking positively vulnerable as he psyches himself up before taking to the stage.</p> <p> Pic's material exists in both feature-length and one-hour cuts; version caught was the feature-length one, which flows nicely. Even so, low budget outs itself in weak sound quality and wobbly camerawork. </p> <p> Camera (color, DV), Kilmi, Maimik, Mart Taniel; editor, Jan-Erik Nogisto; sound, Kilmi, Maimik, Taniel. Reviewed on DVD, Tallinn, Estonia, Dec. 2, 2006. (In Black Nights Film Festival.) Running time: 86 MIN. </p> <p> <span class="boldText"><a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&peopleID=2414"> Leslie Felperin</a></span> <br /> <em><a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117934825.html?categoryid=13&cs=1">Link</a></em> <br /> <br /> To order a screener, please email: <a href="mailto:info@taskovskifilms.com" class="regularLink"> info@taskovskifilms.com</a></p> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newsq"></a><strong>Tomorrow Morning - Sutra Ujutru</strong> <br /> (Serbia-Montenegro)<br /> <span class="newsDate">7 July 2006</span><br /> <br /> <p> <img src="img/content/tomorrow-morning/tomorrow-morning-news.jpg" alt="Tomorrow Morning" width="200" height="134" border="1" align="right"> A Zillion Film production, in association with the Serbian Ministry of Culture, the City of Belgrade. Produced by Lazar Ristovski. Directed by Oleg Novkovic. Screenplay, Milena Markovic. </p> <p> With: Uliks Fehmiu, Nebojsa Glogovac, Nada Sargin, Lazar Ristovski, Ljubomir Bandovic, Radmila Tomovic, Danica Ristovski, Milos Vlalukin, Ana Markovic, Nebojsa Ilic, Jelena Djokic, Milos Andjelkovic, Branko Cvejic, Elizabeta Djorevska, Nada Blam, Renata Ulmanski, Miroljub Leso. (Serbian dialogue.) </p> <p> An emigre's return to Belgrade to get married becomes the occasion for several emotionally fraught and drunken reunions in "Tomorrow Morning," Serbian helmer and docmaker Oleg Novkovic's ("Why Have You Left Me") third fictional feature. Script set up and docu-style handheld look rep nothing new, but pic offers a credible portrait in miniature of a lost generation and a culture shaped by a civil war which is never directly mentioned here. Meaty perfs by the ensemble and solid helming should ensure a fest career dawns for "Morning," even if sales prospects look iffy. </p> <p> After 12 years of working in the computer business in Canada, Nele (Uliks Fehmiu) returns to the rundown Belgrade housing project where he grew up. He plans to marry Maya (Ana Markovic), who is about 10 years younger than he is, but first he wants to reconnect with his old friends and family, who he left behind. </p> <p> The women generally give Nele a warmer reception than the men, especially his put-upon mother (Danica Ristovski), his sexy but alcoholic ex-girlfriend Sasha (Nada Sargin), and another former flame, Ceca (Radmila Tomovic). Ceca is now married to Nele's old friend Bure (Ljubomir Bandovic), who envies Nele's popularity with the femmes. More friendly is former heroin-addict Mare (Nebojsa Glogovac), who runs a local bar. </p> <p> In the old days, everyone was shagging everyone in this tight-knit circle whose members spent most of their time taking drugs, drinking and just hanging out. Nothing much has changed. </p> <p> Nele, suffering from a classic case of exile guilt -- especially in regard to his best friend Sima (Milos Vlalukin) who committed suicide after he left -- is quickly drawn back into the routine. </p> <p> Screenwriter Milena Markovic, who collaborated with helmer Novkovic on short docu "The Miner's Opera," has a background in legit, which shows here, particularly in the somewhat stagy set piece scenes. Still, pic offers a spot-on rendering of this grungy milieu without sentimentality, although some auds may find main characters less than sympathetic. </p> <p> Vital info about the backstory is withheld consistently, such as why Sima committed suicide or why Nele's father (eminent Serbian thesp Lazar Ristovski, from "Underground"), is so hostile toward his own son. But, such obliqueness adds a realistic feel. </p> <p> Thesp ensemble members play off each other nicely, and project an impressive amount of feeling with their modest portions of dialogue. Femme thesps are especially good. </p> <p> Tech package is par for low-budget course, with lensing favoring long takes, and editing including abrupt cuts that add an edgy tone. </p> <p> Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Miladin Èolakovic; editor, Lazar Predojev; music, Miroslav Mitrasinovic; production designer, Nevena Mijuskovic; sound (Dolby Digital), Dejan Pekovic. Reviewed at Karlovy Vary Film Festival (East of the West), July 2, 2006. Running time: 84 MIN. </p> <p> <span class="boldText"><a href="http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=bio&peopleID=2414"> Leslie Felperin</a></span> <br /> </div> <div class="newsarticle"> <a name="newsl"></a><strong>Variety: Helmers bring immigrant vision to Euro pix <br /> Abu Assad working on 'Cairo,' Traidia to make 'Bottles'</strong><br /> <span class="newsDate">18 December 2005</span><br /> <br /> <p> AMSTERDAM -- The history of film in Hollywood has been written, in part, by some of its greatest talent crossing over from Europe. Now, a small but significant strand of filmmakers, coming out of the shifting populations and immigrant cultures of Europe, are beginning to make important contributions to the Euro film industry.</p> <p> The experience of being trapped between two cultures may be a common one, but some of these filmers are providing new visions that are anything but common.</p> <p> Palestinian-born Dutch director Hany Abu Assad is now lensing his sixth pic, "L.A. Cairo." The Arab-American film about the American dream is being produced by Los Angeles- based outfit Dviant Pictures.</p> <p> "L.A. Cairo" follows on the heels of multiple award winner and Palestinian Oscar nominee "Paradise Now," about the last 48 hours of a suicide bomber. Says Abu Assad, "I was born to a people that have lost their land. When that happens, you have only the history, the stories to tell. If the stories are extreme, it is because the experiences have been extreme."</p> <p> Abu Assad's experiences continue to be extreme. Shooting "Paradise Now" in violence-torn Nablus, his cast and crew faced threats to their lives, and his locations manager was kidnapped.</p> <p> Algerian-born Dutch lenser Karim Traidia, winner of the Holland's Golden Calf award for "Polish Bride," is now financing his fourth film, "The Journey of the Empty Bottles," a story about an Iranian political refugee's search for identity.</p> <p> Traidia says he strongly identified with the main character in the Kader Abdollah story. "I became Dutch, but it cost me a lot of pain and sacrifice before I could accept it."</p> <p> He adds, however, fears of cultural dilution are very real and pervasive in Europe today. "Everyone is being hit by Europeanization and globalization and has a fear of losing their identity."</p> <p> The experience of being different can nourish creativity and in some cases, provide an objectivity that a native helmer might not have.</p> <p> Polish-born Pawel Pawlikovski, who came to the U.K. as a teenager, notes, "Everything looks more ambiguous, absurd, funny and threatening, sometimes more beautiful and attractive than it would if you understand the ins and the outs. You observe more intensely and spend more time in your own head."</p> <p> For Jan Fleischer, former Czech new wave filmer, now a lecturer in scriptwriting at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) in the U.K., the experience of filming under communism was a definitive plus for creativity. "Under censorship, you learn to talk in parable and metaphor," says Fleischer, who, blacklisted, left the Czech Republic two days before the regime collapsed, to take up his post in the U.K. "Being given a straightjacket sometimes makes you more inventive."</p> <p> The creative contributions of film directors coming out of today's Eastern camp is being tapped by Taskovski Films, which has produced and is representing "Czech Dream," a satirical docu-jab at modern capitalism directed by Vit Klusak & Filip Remunda, already sold to some 15 territories in Europe</p> <p> The London-based company was founded by Irena Taskovski, who fled to the Czech Republic at the age of 17 following the outbreak of the war in her native Bosnia.</p> <p> Taskovski believes a major creative wind is coming out of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, reasons her company has moved into sales, not only for "Czech Dream," but for a handful of other pics, among them award-winning lenser Jan Cvitkovik's "Gravehopping" and Czech helmer Aleksander Manic's "The Shutka Book of Records." Company is getting significant interest on the slate of pics from the U.S., she says.</p> <p> <strong>Scandinavian wave</strong></p> <p> Scandinavia is becoming a major hotbed for new first- or second-generation immigrant helmers, with box office numbers bolstering new sales expectations. Films like Khalid Hussain's "Import Export" and Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen's film "Izzat," about Pakistani gangsters in Norway, have delivered beyond expectations at the box office, says Jan Eric Holst, exec director of the international department at the Norwegian Film Industry.</p> <p> Lebanese-born Swedish lenser Josef Fares' third pic, "Zozo," failed to bring in the wild box office his comedies "Kops" and "Jalla Jalla" did in Sweden, but at 300,000, the numbers for the partially autobiographical drama were respectable. Iranian born Swedish lenser Reza Bagher's "Popular Music" also came close to 300,000.</p> <p> Sonet Film has picked up Amir Chamdin's debut feature film "God Willing," a romantic tale set for release next March about the love between a Syrian man and a Finnish woman, both living in Stockholm. Chamdin, known for cranking out musicvids and a member of the popular band Infinite Mass, says Swedish films continue to stereotype, as does the society at large. Local interest in "God Willing" should be strong, as Cardigan's singer Nina Persson plays the lead.</p> <p> Several of these filmmakers have been quite successful already -- Trust Film Sales reports Fares' "Zozo" sold to 26 territories, "Jalla Jalla" to more than 65 and "Kops" to some 55.</p> <p> U.K. Film Council European executive Jan-Jacob Lousberg points to the successes of Turkish-born German director Feta Akim and Turkish born Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek, calling Ozpetek's "Facing Windows" one of the most successful Italian films of all time.</p> <p> Indeed, "Facing Windows" reported $14 million in box office, the third-biggest take in Italy in 2003, and sold to 32 territories. Abu Assad's "Paradise Now" at last count, sold to 52 territories.</p> <p> France's second-gen lenser Abdel Kechiche, who last year picked up four Cesar's for his film "L'Esquive" (The Game of Lo