SYNOPSIS
Heathens is a film based on a theatre play by the tragically deceased Anna Jablonska, which searches for the essence and meaning of faith, of a traditional family and social morality. The existential drama presents a dysfunctional family whose members are unable to meet.
They live ordinary lives without much joy; they hide their discontent, desires and dreams within themselves. Their emotions and feelings remain hidden. When a religious grandmother unexpectedly comes for a visit and decides to stay without asking, it causes a turmoil. The mother, father and their teenage daughter undergo a transformation and miracles begin to happen.
The black and white film also touches upon the issue of Ukrainian Orthodox Church, controlled by the Moscow Patriarchate, which in turn is very often controlled by state power.
EXPLICATION
The gently satirical existential drama from Orthodox Ukraine (as well as Russia) presents the conflict between dogmatic bigotry and a sincere desire for truth and love projected onto the story of an ordinary family. It rails against religion abused by power as it leads to a superstitious and fanatical life. It shows how distorted faith damages people’s thoughts, actions and destinies. The Pharisees in all religions around the world still cause harm today, they are like whitewashed tombs with only dead bones and all kinds of rubbish. These hypocrites affect the lives of millions of people, turning religion into an obstacle on the way rather than a path to knowledge.
Old habits die hard and people tend towards herd mentality. In an environment where religious leaders serve someone or something other than God and falsely present these vested interests as God’s word and God’s will, people are easily collectively seduced into a hopeless existence in which their lives neither unfold nor make sense.
A major life upheaval can sometimes be a therapy for this mental and spiritual death. For sometimes a shock is the best thing that can happen.
This film was dedicated to a memory of the tragically deceased Anna Jablonska, the author of the eponymous theatre play HEATHENS
Anna Jablonská *1981 - †2011
A Ukrainian author with a substantial legacy in contemporary drama. She was one of the most distinctive voices of her generation. Her work has been successful throughout Russia and she has been nominated for and received many prestigious dramatic awards. She belonged to the group of artists affiliated with Teatr.doc. Unlike her colleagues, however, she never moved to Moscow, but drew on the environment of her native Odessa, inspired by “small people with big dreams”. Her plays provide hope in the arrival of brighter tomorrows and are refreshing in the context of contemporary Russian drama.
Anna Jablonska who had tragicaly lost her life, when a suicide bomber killed himself right next to her in Domodyedovo airport. Anna arrived to Moscow as a main prize nominee for her play Heathens. The prize was awarded in memoriam.
TRAILER
TEASER
FILM’S THEATRE
The original text of the play has strong theatrical and cinematic potential, while it is also written in a stylised, almost poetic language. It is unique, as the text already contains a relationship – a dialogue between theatre and film, between scenes rendered by theatrical and cinematic means of expression, between the spoken word and cinematic shorthand. The play works perfectly well in purely theatrical staging, but film is able to explore its cinematic essence as well. It retains its theatrical poetry, expressiveness and stylisation. At the same time, it realises, elaborates and develops all the cinematic elements of the story through the possibilities film has, especially in the narrative through images. During the work on the script, the theatre play was not merely adapted into a film script, instead the images themselves emerged as a necessity encoded directly in the text of the play, without diminishing its theatricality. The black-and-white material further emphasises and develops the symbiosis between theatre and film, as it is much closer to theatrical minimalism, as opposed to the exaggerated richness of the set in a colour film. Black-and-white film’s charm lies in its ability to show only the essential and hide anything that might distract. Theatre does the same. On scene, it uses only what is really necessary for the play. The actors in Heathens are like acrobats balancing on a tightrope stretched between stage and film acting, subtly changing the proportions of this and that according to the film-theatre situation of a scene. They are more subtle in dialogues than they would be on stage, but use stage acting first and foremost. They are more expressive in the cinematic images than they would be in a standard film, but maintain authenticity. The dialogue between authenticity and stylisation of acting is very subtle here so as not to interfere with the plot and consistency of the characters, yet it is maintained throughout. Stylisation and authenticity are as close as two sisters, as two daughters of one reality, one truth.
AUTHORS
DIRECTOR, AUTHOR OF THE SCRIPT, SCREENPLAY ADAPTATION AND PRODUCER
She studied screenwriting and dramaturgy at FAMU in Prague, she has contributed to countless television and audiovisual formats across the genres, and she has also written or directed feature films for television. Filmmaking is her favourite field. She is the author of the idea and co-writer of the screenplay for the film Samotáři (Loners), she participated on making the films Knoflíkáři, Kanárek, Mňága Happy End, etc., she directed the feature films Kuličky, Tajemství Divadla Sklep, Cena za štěstí. She has taught film scriptwriting and directing at FAMU and she is a member of local and international film juries. Recently she has also been working as a producer.
Olga Dabrowská
CINEMATOGRAPHER
He studied two subjects at FAMU in Prague (Department of Photography and Department of Documentary Film). He graduated as a cinematographer with the student film Dotek obrazu (1998), then worked on several feature films and documentaries (Plán by Benjamin Tuček, Mamas & Papas by Alice Nellis, Pátrání po Ester by Věra Chytilová). As a director he attracted attention with the documentary Nebe, Peklo (2009) about a community of people who find pleasure in various forms of pain, which was awarded a prize at the Finale in Plzeň. His recent film Pirátské sítě(2014) covers the phenomenon of piracy, a successful business flourishing on the shores of Somalia.
David Čálek
FILM EDITOR
In 1993, she graduated from the department of editing at FAMU in Prague. She established herself professionally in her country even before graduating as an editor for the cult Bulgarian TV series UFO. After graduating from FAMU, she stayed in the Czech Republic and participated in the editing of dozens of feature films (including Underground by E. Kusturica, America by V. Michálek, The Adventures of Private Čonkin by J. Menzel), worked as an editor on more than two thousand Czech documentaries and news programs . In 2013, as a producer and editor, she won the Trilobit Czech Critics Award for the documentary by D. Vondráček Love in the Grave, which was also awarded the Czech Lion and major prizes at festivals abroad (USA, France, Italy, Hungary and other countries). Her empathy, intuition and unerring feel for human characters and stories make her one of the best professionals in the business.
Krasimira Velitchova
CZECH POET AND COMPOSER
Ivan has been engaged in music for a long time, and he received his musical education as a private student of the current artistic director of the National Theater Opera, Petr Kofroně. Since 2002, he has been collaborating with the contemporary music ensemble Agon Orchestra, for which he has created nearly 20 orchestral compositions. The biggest part of his work is music for dance and theater productions. So far, his music has appeared in more than 130 theater productions, 20 dance performances, 6 radio plays and 50 feature films and documentaries, at home and abroad. He collaborated most with the legendary Prague Chamber Theater - Comedy Theater (Quartet, Process, The Passion of Prince Sternenhoch, Weissenstein, Antiklimax) and the Lenka Vagnerová Company (music for the ballet performances Riders, La Loba and Sorcerer). Ivan’s music appeared also in productions of the Na Zabradlí Theatre, the National Theater in Prague (e.g. Jules Verne's The Wonderful Journey), Bratislava and Brno. He wrote the opera "Sternenhoch" for the National Theater Opera, which premiered in the spring of 2018. For his music, he was nominated for the Czech Film Critics Award, the Czech Theater Critics Award, the Alfréd Radok Award, the Doska Award. He also won the Czech Lion Award for his music to the film Garbage City Death. He further collaborated with Jan Hřebejk on the film Forbidden Release.
Ivan Acher
MAIN CAST
KRISTYNA Tereza Slánská
MARINA Eva Alner
OLEG Jiří Racek
NATALIE Lenka Vychodilová
BOCMAN Josef Polášek
SERGEI Ondřej Lechnýř
ANNA JABLONSKA Tereza Šefrnová
PRODUCERS
Since 1997, she has been producing specialist films in technical fields that contain technical information and bring science and technology closer to art.
In 2012, she started doing film production with the documentary Rok bez Magora.
Since then, she has produced and co-produced the documentaryObčan Karel Kryl2, CDs and music videos for Oldřich Kaiser and Dáša Vokatá, the seriesZa oponou, and the feature filmCena za štěstí.
Iva Kubišová
Born on 18.4. 1979 in Ostrava, Eva studied acting at the Janáček Conservatory. Already at school, she was a guest at the Petr Bezruč Theater and the Silesian Theater in Opava. She spent several acting years in the West Bohemian Theater in Cheb and in the Horácké Theater in Jihlava. Since 2016, he has been working as a freelancer in Prague. She is cast in a number of film series.
At the beginning of 2018, Eva founded the company Estela Productions, which has produced several theater performances, and an independent festival of short films. Another Estela project "Let's return joy to Ukrainian children" integrates families from Ukraine into Prague's cultural environment. The art film Pohani is her debut in the film industry.
Eva Alner
Born on November 26, 1973 in Bratislava (former Czechoslovakia), Tomáš lived, worked and studied in Israel, Ukraine and the Czech Republic.
Tomáš is a serial entrepreneur in the fields including engineering, medicine, and construction. He is the founder of the non-profit organization Human Habitat Research Institute, which focuses primarily on the impact of technology on the quality of human life.
He works as a producer within the Estela Productions company which he co-founded.
Tomáš Alner
Running time - 92 min
Genre - Drama
Shooting format - 4096 × 1716
Sales/Distribution - Olga Dabrowská, Iva Kubišová, Eva a Tomáš Alnerovi
