Critically acclaimed Czech director Petr Vaclav premieres his latest drama WE ARE NEVER ALONE (Forum - World Premiere) at the Berlinale.
This ensemble allegory follows the surprisingly interconnected lives of a group of very different people struggling to survive, each in their own way, in a small town in the Czech provinces: a paranoid prison guard, his hypochondriac neighbor and his wife who holds a shocking secret, their hardened children, a lovesick nightclub manager, and a stripper who is a single mother. Like a domino effect, each person's actions unknowingly trigger consequences for them all.
Employing both color and black & white imagery to startling effect, and an intriguing fractured narrative, Vaclav dares to create an existential, yet humane social drama - and explore how power affects humanity in our modern world.
Said Vaclav, "No one is ever alone - we are always connected. We all live with others: some we dominate, some dominate us. The weaker submit to the stronger, the imitators to the originators, lovers to their beloved. This is a film about our time."
Limited advance screener links available upon request.
Writer/director Petr Vaclav is available for interviews at the Berlinale upon request.
BERLINALE PRESS DAY:
Monday, Feb. 15th, 3:30pm - 6:00pm
Talent Available: Writer/Director Petr Vaclav
*Convenient festival location provided upon request
2016 Berlinale - World Premiere - Forum
WE ARE NEVER ALONE
(Nikdy Nejsme Sami)
Czech Republic-France / 2016 / 104 min / Color and Black & White
In Czech, with English subtitles
Written & Directed by: Petr Vaclav
Produced by: Jan Macola
Cast: Karel Roden, Lenka Vlasáková, Miroslav Hanus, Zdeněk Godla, Klaudia Dudova
Festival Screenings:
Fri Feb 12 12:50, CinemaxX Studio 14 (Market Screening)
Sun Feb 14 20:00, Colosseum 1
Mon Feb 15 20:00, Kino Arsenal 1
Tue Feb 16 14:00, Cubix 7
Thu Feb 18 16:30, CineStar 8
Synopsis:
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Czech provinces, a handful of people come together: a paranoid prison guard, his hypochondriac neighbour and the latter's silent, despairing wife, a lovesick nightclub manager and a stripper who is a single mum. Here, peace, joy and hope are just slogans on a T-shirt. Although they live on a connecting road, life offers them nothing but dead ends. Yet brighter colours are soon mixed in to their black and white everyday existence. The encounters between the characters bear witness to rebellion and irrational hopes, as well as cruelty. The depiction of this milieu shifts between the realistic and the bizarre. The forest setting, the many tracking shots and streets, lend the action an almost metaphorical note. Where are we really, and where are we heading? In this film, the provinces are more than just a stronghold of quirky, yet sympathetic individuals; they are a frame of mind, a self-righteous need to set oneself apart from anything different. Your father is afraid of diseases, mine is afraid of people, says the prison guard's son to the hypochondriac's son.
Filmmaker Bio:
Internationally acclaimed Czech director Petr Vaclav began his illustrious career with a Student Academy Award nomination for the short doc MADAME LE MURIE (1993), after graduating from the prestigious Prague Film Academy FAMU. Hi's first feature film, MARIAN (1996) won the Silver Leopard and the FIPRESCI Award in Locarno and other prizes at Angers, Thessaloniki, Belfort, Cottbus, Bratislava and Tehran film festivals, and was released around the world. His second feature, PARALLEL WORLD, (2001) was selected for the San Sebastian Official Competition. His recent feature THE WAY OUT about a young Romani woman fighting for an ordinary life, premiered at Cannes (ACID Selection 2014). His documentary CONFESSION OF THE VANISHED, portraying famous Czech composer Josef Myslivecek was released in April 2015 and is the part of the work on Vaclav´s ambitious project, Il BOEMO. He is curr
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