Directed by:
Dagmar KnöpfelScreenplay:
Dagmar KnöpfelCinematography:
Jan MalířComposer:
Aleš BřezinaCast:
Corinna Harfouch, Bolek Polívka, Petr Forman, Ondřej Vetchý, Anna Polívková, Táňa Fischerová, Libuše Geprtová, Adrian Jastraban, Robert Gwisdek (more)Plots(1)
The film portrays the final days of the most famous Czech authoress, Božena Nemcová, who in the mid-19th century dared to live a life free of social constraints. The novelist of the legendary "Grandmother", which Kafka still recommended for his sisters to read, sits down one evening in 1861, exhausted and deathly ill, on her last journey, which is also a final attempt to flee a broken marriage, and formulates in her desperation three draughts of a letter to Vojtech Náprstek, her last friend and patron, a letter which will never reach its intended recipient. These three draughts contain gaps and omissions, and yet they form a conclusive, self-contained portrayal of the way 19th century society revenged itself on a woman who dared to settle into a liberated life, and was doomed to fail. (Berlinale)
(more)Reviews (1)
This remarkable film was inspired by the last three letters of Božena Němcová. It is a mature art experience with a non-linear narrative. Apart from Corinna Harfouch's solo concert, Polívka and Polívková have interesting counter-tasks, not to mention all the other Czech actors in supporting roles. It is not an encounter with an embalmed icon, but an intimate immersion into the soul of the dying.
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