18/04/2007

Jan and Zdenek Sverák’s film Empties [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which is on course for a new domestic box office record, has been included in the official competition programme of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (June 29-July 7).

At the age of 29, Jan Sverák won the festival’s main prize, the Crystal Globe, for his 1994 road movie The Ride (Jizda). Jan’s father Zdenek wrote the script of Empties and stars as Josef, a retired teacher who decides to take on a job in a supermarket to confront the ghosts of old age.

The film, already the hottest property in the Czech Republic this year, is one of four films announced so far by the Karlovy Vary organisers, who say that the remaining 15 or 16 films in official competition are known and will be gradually announced over the next month. A total of 220 works are expected to be screened in the various sections of this year’s 42nd edition of the event.

The official competition line-up so far includes another old-time Karlovy Vary favourite, Polish director Krzysztof Krauze, who returns with Saviour's Square [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Krauze picked up the festival’s Crystal Globe as well as the Best Director award for My Nikifor (Mój Nikifor) [+see also:
film review
film profile] in 2005.

The other two films announced so far are Korean production Pruning the Grapevine (Podo-namulul Be-a-ra), directed by Min Boung-hun, and Russian entry Simple Things (Prostyje vestsi) by Alexei Popogrebsky

Equally anticipated are the films included in what has already become a cult section of the festival, East of the West, where films from former Eastern Europe compete. So far only three have been announced: local entry Rules of Lies by Robert Sedlácek, and Russian films Free Floating (Svobodnoe plavanie) by Boris Khlebnikov and Kek by Damir Manabai (Kazakhstan).