Scene from the film René
Scene from the film René
Scene from the film René
Scene from the film René
Scene from the film René

René

Direction
Year 
2008
Country
  • Czech Republic
Duration
90min 
Audio Tracks 
Subtitles 

20 years of a life spent mainly in prisons. A man who starts over again and again, fails, becomes a writer and keeps challenging the director constantly.
In 1989, Helena Treštíková starts to film juvenile delinquent René. For almost 20 years, she follows the rhythm of his life, most of which is spent in prisons, interrupted only by brief stretches of freedom. 20 years during which epoch-making social upheavals take place, systems, regimes and governments change – depicted by televised images that reach René’s cell. The immobility and absence of pace “inside” is juxtaposed with a restless “outside”, where René roams squares and train stations and takes trains, without arriving anywhere. It is the filmmaker herself who is the connection between inside and outside, having become the only reliable constant in her protagonist’s life. A contradictory and shifting relationship reflected by René in his letters to Treštíková. Read by him, they add a second level to the film where the filmmaker practically becomes the second character. René, whom she helps to become a successful writer over the years, turns out to be an equal but difficult partner. He demands attention as rigorously as he questions the relationship between filmmaker and protagonist again and again. Her attempts to turn him into the co-author of the film are part of the story. A story of overwhelming power that goes straight to where it hurts.

(Catalogue DOK Leipzig)

Details

  • Original title
    René
  • Direction
  • Screenplay
    Helena Třeštíková
  • DOP
    Martin Kubala, Petr Pešek, Stano Slušný, Václav Smolík, Marek Dvorák, Ondrej Belica, Miroslav Soucek, Vlastimil Hamerník
  • Editing
    Jakub Hejna
  • Music
    Tadeáš Vercák
  • Sound
    Vladimír Nahodil, Pavel Sádek, Jan Valouch, Václav Hejduk, Miroslav Šimcík, Štepán Mamula, Daniel Nemec, Zbynek Mikulík, Petr Provazník, Jan Valouch
  • Duration
    90 min (46-90 min.)
  • Year
    2008
  • Country
    • Czech Republic
  • Colour
    • Colour
  • Production
  • Distribution
  • Festivals
    • 13th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2011, Greece
  • Awards
    • IDFF Jihlava 2008
    • GOLDEN DOVE (Long Metrage, longer than 45 min) - 51st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film
    • The best documentary - Prix ARTE 2008
    • MDR FILM PRIZE for an excellent Eastern European documentary film - 51st International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film

DAFilms.com is powered by Doc Alliance, a creative partnership of 7 key European documentary film festivals. Our aim is to advance the documentary genre, support its diversity and promote quality creative documentary films.

Doc Alliance Members

Join to get regular updates on our film program:

By sending the registration for the Newsletter, I consent to receiving commercial communications through electronic means and to related personal data processing required for the purposes of sending the Newsletter of Doc-Air Distribution s.r.o. I confirm having read the Principles of Personal Data Processing, understanding the text and consenting to the same, while I acknowledge the rights specified herein, including, without limitation, the right to submit objections against direct marketing techniques.

Poslat svému Junioru

Zavřít