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FUTURE FRAMES 2021

Kateřina Hroníková • Réalisatrice de Rheum

“Je ne croyais pas que j’aurais un jour l’opportunité de présenter mon propre film à Karlovy Vary”

par 

- La réalisatrice slovaque revient au festival tchèque, qu’elle a connu comme spectatrice, pour présenter son film, dans le cadre de l’initiative Future Frames de l’EFP

Kateřina Hroníková  • Réalisatrice de Rheum

Cet article est disponible en anglais.

Kateřina Hroníková, who studies at the Department of Documentary Film of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, has said that her work “…reflects on the themes of loneliness, emptiness, and social exclusion.”

This is certainly true of her fiction short Rheum, which screens as part of EFP’s Future Frames at the 55th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which focuses on a longtime married couple. Firmly in their twilight years, they have become set in their ways and seemingly distant from each other. But when an agency called ‘The Sun’ appears, they begin to re-examine their lives. A bold and engrossing drama, Hroníková imbues the film with a gentle sense of humour and satire.

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Hroníková tells us a little more about why old age is such an important subject in her work.

Cineuropa: Where did the film come from?
Kateřina Hroníková:
The characters were inspired by my grandparents, and the way I remembered them as a child spending summer at their place. The house always had to be very clean, and we had to look neat at all times, as if a president was supposed to come over for a visit, although no one besides family used to visit them. I was interested in the habits we were raised in, that maybe made sense to us when we were young, but gradually started to turn against us the older we got.

It moves between being a gentle satire as well as about the unresolved tensions between a couple who have lived together for many years. How did you balance everything?
At first I wanted to make a film solely about the world of an ageing married couple, to keep them in their home, in their garden, and not to add anything external to this world. But it seemed somewhat reductive and I thought about the ways I could make the themes of the film stand out - so I invented the Sun agency and all of a sudden it started to make sense. The agency brings into the lives of the characters wider social context and works as the standard condition of the external world that excluded the characters, so their attempts to return back are often tragicomic.

What kind of things influence you aesthetically?
In general, I can see in my work themes that are repeated and interconnected in different ways, always in slightly different connotations. Old age and everything connected with it is clearly one of the strongest - as a child I spent quite a lot of time with older people and I realise how much influence it still has on me to this day. I started by making documentaries, which I see as a huge plus for fiction films, as it teaches you to empathise, and work sensitively with people, to notice small things in everyday life - which helps me a lot with creating an atmosphere. But I find inspiration in almost everything - someone says something on the subway, you see a situation on the street, in the family…

How was working with Taťjana Medvecká and Jiří Wohanka in the leads.?
Honestly, I was quite nervous about it, because I realised that they are both very experienced and good actors. However, after our first meetings, this nervousness disappeared very quickly and the joy of being able to work with such people prevailed. They were perfectly prepared for each day, we got quite close and I hope Rheum was not our last film.

You’re heading to Karlovy Vary for Future Frames.
Having a film in Karlovy Vary means a lot to me - I remember going to the festival a few years ago, I slept with my friends somewhere on the outskirts of the city and everything seemed completely unattainable to me. At that time, I wouldn't believe that one day I'd have the opportunity to present my own film here. For emerging directors, the Future Frames section is very beneficial in many ways. We have meetings with people who can share their experiences with us - I really appreciate it and look forward to meeting not only them, but also other directors who have their films in Future Frames.

What are you working on next?
Together with Kristína Žilinčárová, the co-writer of the screenplay of Rheum, we just finished writing a short film, which will be my first film outside of school, and for which we are currently seeking funding. For the past year we have been primarily writing my master's film, which will be shot in the spring and which I plan to extend to my feature debut.

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