SHORTS FROM PISEK
Plzeň
The Film Academy of Miroslav Ondricek (FAMO) is an important film school whose graduates are regularly featured not only in traditional iShorts programs but also at numerous domestic and international film festivals. Recently, the school attracted media attention with a historic achievement, The Compatriot - short movie (dir. Pavel Sýkora and Viktor Horák) was honored with a Student Academy Award. In light of this, iShorts decided to devote the December focus on FAMO students and their short films, who are sure to make waves in the world of cinema in the coming years. Join us for a cinematic journey to South Bohemia and see for yourself!
The Compatriot (Czech Republic)
Directors: Pavel Sýkora, Viktor Horák | Producer: FAMO |
Star: Jiří Štěpnička, Pavel Batěk, Martin Hlubocký |
Year: 2023 | Length: 25 min | Live Action |
1944. SS Officer Konrad Neumann and widower Petr Bernat are hiding from a snow storm in a secluded cottage. Do the two men have something in common or have they been brought together only by chance? As the storm outside is gaining strength, tensions mount and the storm is slowly and surely brewing inside, too. Will either of them see the light of day again?
Weeds (Czech Republic)
Director: Pola Kazak | Producers: FAMO, MAUR film |
Star: Zuzana Petráňová |
Year: 2024 | Length: 14 min | Animation |
Far, far away, endless fields overgrown with weeds stretch to infinity. A beautiful garden is hidden in the middle of them, and it is carefully looked after by the Gardener. Her endurance is put to the test when a severe storm breaks out and her garden is flooded with seeds of weeds. This innocent encounter slowly grows into a life-and-death struggle. The Gardener tries her best to defeat this elemental force, but her fear and her desire to resist the intruders at all costs puts her entire world at risk.
Before Afterlife (Czech Republic)
Director: Marina Malysh | Producer: FAMO |
Star: Jennifer Baluchová, Vít Roleček, Johana Fialová |
Year: 2023 | Length: 6 min | Live Action |
The story takes place somewhere between life and death and tells about four suicide ghosts. They are stuck in a kind of pre-death stage where they are no longer alive, but not quite dead, and they are waiting for the day when they should actually die, so that their fate will be completely fulfilled and they will achieve peace and harmony. Now the ghostly living space is shared between: a drowned alcoholic from the 1990s, a housewife from the 1960s who cut herself due to her husband's infidelity, a hanged businessman from the 1990s who did not survive the crisis, and the main one, oldest and most experienced of all ghosts — an eleven-year-old girl from the 1930s , who accidentally drank household chemicals.
Torso (Czech Republic)
Director: Ondřej Strouha | Producer: FAMO |
Star: Pavel Gajdoš, Johana Raichlová, Eva Kodešová, Vít Kříž, Benjamín Róbert Minárik |
Year: 2023 | Length: 20 min | Live Action |
Tom is in Prague on a business trip. Although he has officially arrived at the conference, he actually spends most of his time with his inner conflicts and memories of the past. After his wife Marika's phone complaints about his lack of involvement in family life, he meets young Sofia, with whom he has intense and emotional conversations about life choices, love and desire. He believes that thanks to her he can escape his heartless and stale life.
Nam (Czech Republic)
Director: Mai Nguyen Huyen | Producer: FAMO |
Star: Ngô Tuan Linh, Ha Thanh Špetlíková, Phan Trung Hieu |
Year: 2023 | Length: 19 min | Live Action |
Would you sacrifice someone else's life to improve your own?
Nam, an immigrant from Vietnam, meets My, he gets to decide whether to sacrifice himself for another person.
Total length of the screening 84 min. In original language with Czech and English subtitles.