Czech/Slovak documentary-opera “Kapr Code” will receive its Czech premiere at the 26th Jihlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, which runs Oct. 25-30, Film New Europe reports.
Lucie Králová’s film focuses on the contradictory life of Czech progressive composer and prominent communist Jan Kapr (1914-88). Lightdox is handling world sales.
The director found out about Kapr by chance. “A friend of mine told me about Kapr’s old apartment in Prague where his legacy was being stored. She asked me to digitalize his films, and step by step, I got to know him. His films are really fascinating because they look like small fiction sketches,” Králová explained in a statement.
The subtitle of the film is “Life as a Composition,” because Kapr composed not only his music, but also his life. He is the author of his own story, which he filmed. The doc soundtracks his silent films with his music.
“I asked myself how I could talk about his life using a new perspective. I didn’t want to make a historical film with a closed message. I wanted to ask what is still important today about Kapr. I was inspired by the Czech opera director Jiří Adámek, who doesn’t make classical opera, but new opera. He uses opera principles to deal with contemporary issues and thus he is able to attract a younger audience,” Králová said.
The film is a Czech/Slovak coproduction, produced by DOCUfilm Praha and Mindset Pictures, in coproduction with Czech Television, VIRUSfilm and MagicLab.
The project has been supported by the Czech Film Fund with 40,890 Euros (1 million CZK), the South Moravian Film Fund with 12,267 Euros (300,000 CZK), and the Slovak Audiovisual Fund with 30,000 Euros. The budget was approximately 170,000 Euros (4.193 million CZK), producer Andrea Shaffer from Mindset Pictures told FNE.
Courtesy of FNE
The project is an IMZ Avant Première pitch winner and it also participated in the work-in-progress sidebar at ParisDoc Cinereél as well as dok.incubator.
“Kapr Code” had its international premiere at Vision du Réel in April, in the Burning Lights section. It also screened in the main competition at Filmfest München in June, and won the Best Film Award at the DocMusic Krakow.
This article is published in partnership with online news service Film New Europe, which covers film and TV industry news from across Central and Eastern Europe.
