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• Press kit of EIGHTY LETTERS

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• Cannes 2011 (Premiere)

Year of production : 2011

Director(s) : Václav KADRNKA
Writer(s) : Jiří SOUKUP, Václav KADRNKA
Cast : Martin PAVLUŠ, Zuzana LAPČÍKOVÁ

Producer(s) : Václav KADRNKA (Václav Kadrnka)

Eighty Letters is autobiographically based. The source of the film are the memories of the director and the surviving correspondence between his parents. The story takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1987. The father has defected to England and the mother and her son are planning to leave the country to be reunited with him. Husband, wife, child – even at a distance they are still together, but the forced break-up of any family is an abnormal situation. The events of the film are viewed from the boy’s perspective, the exasperated gaze of one lacking experience, his initiation in the course of this single day - the film. It is the day when the youth gets a glimpse of adulthood and overcomes fear. His mother’s movements are part of an intensified daily routine, as she maps it out hour by hour. It is a battlefield situation for her. She is on her way, her son catches up with her on that path, but she must act alone if they are to achieve completeness together.

Statement:
“Eighty Letters is about my memories of my mother at the time when my father defected to the West from the totalitarian regime. The story takes place in one day. I still well remember that day. My mother moving about in it like a pre-programmed machine, concentratedly determined to do battle with the communist bureaucracy, driven by one single motive – to get us to Dad. It is an intimate fi lm that was made with modest means. My wish was to tell my own story in a daring way. I think that Eighty Letters will be an original fi lm. I wanted to capture a bit of silence within the contemporary cult of ugliness, noise and tawdry effects. I am not trying to shock in order to attract attention. My intention was to fi lm someone who is loved, and try to portray his sadness, which is white, silent and still, like my fi lm. And with no end.”