The world premiere of director Pavel Jančárek’s time-lapse documentary Havel Speaking, Can You Hear Me?, which follows the last years of former Czech President Václav Havel, will open the 27th Ji.hlava IDFF on October 24.
“Jančárek [has] created a multi-layered portrait of a world-famous political icon and important playwright, but also an ordinary man plagued by health problems,” the festival writes. “With a sense of humour, he reflects on his political legacy and universal human issues. The central motif is formed by the parallels between Havel’s life and the successful play, which Havel always wanted to direct as a film adaptation.”
Béla Tarr to receive the Contribution to World Cinema Award at Ji.hlava IDFF
The 27th Ji.hlava will give the Contribution to World Cinema Award to the revered Hungarian director Béla Tarr, whose last film The Turin Horse was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlinale. The award will be given during the festival’s closing night festivities on October 28. “While in his early days he made short documentaries, mainly about workers and people on the margins of Hungarian society,” the festival writes, “his latest features have an unmistakable minimalist handwriting and apocalyptic feel combined with a sense of the absurd.” The Ji.hlava professional audience can enjoy a Tarr masterclass and the screening of his Werckmeister’s Harmonies (2020).
Additional Masterclasses by Kawase, Auvray, Táborský, Tarr and Holland
The internationally acclaimed Japanese director Naomi Kawase returns to Ji.hlava after 18 years to give a masterclass. Additionally, Kawase will screen her Official Film of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and her feature Still the Water. The renowned French editor Dominique Auvray is behind many remarkable films, including Wang Bing’s Youth (Spring), which will also be screened at the festival.
A special section is dedicated to Václav Táborský who is largely responsible for ushering in cinéma vérité in Czechoslovak cinematography. The celebrated Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr will present his creative method to the Ji.hlava audiences, and the festival will also be joined online by Polish director Agnieszka Holland whose film Green Border has recently hit cinemas in Europe and beyond.
