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- NTC Award Ceremony
New Talent Competition gives young filmmakers from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe the opportunity to present their outstanding debut or second film to the public. Join us on Sunday 1 December at 19h - Music at ENFF
The Eastern Neighbours Film Festival welcomes special musical guests each year to enrich our program. For this 16th edition, we’re thrilled to present two talented young musicians: guitarist Antonio Peršak (CR) and violinist İdil Yunkuş (TR). Together, they will perform a traditional Balkan dance and folk song, highlighting the beauty of this music through the… Read more: Music at ENFF - Masterclass with Janez Burger
This masterclass presents a unique opportunity to explore Burger's distinct storytelling style, genre use, and exploration of contemporary social issues. Join us on Saturday 30 November at 17h - Room 5 - Panel Discussion: Exploration of individual and collective memory in cinema
Panel Discussion: Exploration of individual and collective memory in cinema on Friday 29 November at 18h
dir. JURAJ HERZ
DUTCH PREMIERE
A cult film that was forbidden during the Communist regime. Considered one of the greatest films ever made in Czechoslovakia. This black comedy is set in Central Europe during World War II and revolves around a demented cremator who believes cremation relieves earthly suffering and sets out to save the world.
Czechoslovak New Wave director Juraj Herz based his grotesque psychological horror masterpiece on the perspective of its deranged protagonist. Karel Kopfrkingl, brilliantly played by Rudolf Hrusinsky, starts as a model father and dedicated employee of a Prague crematorium and turns into a man willing to sacrifice everything, including his closest family, for the sake of a degenerate ideology. The film has a unique visual style developed by its cinematographer Stanislav Milota, who succeeds in moulding the visual and literary components into a new unity, taking the genre of the film onto a philosophical level.
SHOWTIMES | Special Guest: Prof. Petr Kopecky
Friday, 24 November – 19:00
SPALOVAC MRTVOL | 1969 | 97 min | Czechoslovakia
| PRODUCTION | Ladislav Hanu – Filmove studio Barrandov, Sebor |
| CAST | Rudolf Hrusinsky, Vlasta Chramostova, Jana Stehnova, Milos Vognic, Jiri Menzel |
| SCREENPLAY | Ladislav Fuks, Juraj Herz |
| CINEMATOGRAPHY | Stanislav Milota |
| EDITING | Jaromir Janacek |
| LANGUAGE | Czech, Hebrew |
| SUBTITLES | English |
FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION)
Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival, 1972 – Best Film, Best Actor, Best Cinematography | Czechoslovakian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Juraj Herz (b. 1934, Kezmarok – 2018, Prague) was a famous Slovak film director, actor, and scene designer, associated with the Czechoslovak New Wave movement of the 1960s. Selected filmography: The Junk Shop (1965, short), The Sign of Cancer (1966), The Cremator (1968), Oil Lamps (1971), Morgiana (1972), Girls from the Porcelain Factory (1974), The Ninth Heart (1978), Ferat Vampire (1981), A Magpie in the Hand (1983), Passage (1996), Darkness (2009), Habermann (2010).