Festival coming to end

The 37th annual International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary is slowly coming to an end. On Saturday the main award, the Crystal Globe, and all the other prizes will be awarded at a special ceremony. Radio Prague's Dita Asiedu is in Karlovy Vary. Pavla Horakova spoke to Dita earlier today and she first asked her about the jury which is going to decide about the best movie, the best director and other categories.

Festival coming to end

Ben Chaplin, Photo:CTK

"There are seven members in the feature film jury that's chaired by actor and director Jean-Marc Barr. The most renowned member, however, will probably be the respected film critic Roger Ebert, the man whose two thumbs up make a movie worth seeing and two thumbs down pretty much tell you it's a waste of time and money. Then there's the Hungarian film director Ibolya Fekete and the name may sound familiar to the listeners who followed my coverage of the festival last year as she won the Best Director Award for her movie 'Chico'. Another jury member is the Czech cameraman Jan Malir who has worked with several great Czech film-makers such as Vera Chytilova and Jan Hrebejk whose movie 'Divided We Fall' was nominated for the Oscars in the foreign film category. So there's quite a mix of nationalities in the jury."

Have you seen any movies you liked in particular?

"Yes, I have. I have seen quite a few movies and most of them have been absolutely fantastic. But I have to say I was very deeply touched by the Canadian movie 'Khaled' that's in the competition category. It's directed by the Iranian-Canadian director Asghar Massombagi and is about a ten-year old boy who lives with his seriously ill mother in a cheap flat. When the mother dies one night he leaves her body in her room and pretends that nothing has happened. The whole movie is about the psychological terror that the boy goes through trying to go on living normally without anyone finding out about his mother's death."

Does that movie have a chance of winning, do you think?

"Well, although the movie has a very strong storyline, I don't think so. It was shot on video and the disadvantages of that are very visible. So for example when the little boy runs, the whole screen shakes. Overall, I don't really think it has a chance of winning. But it's certainly worth watching. And what's really interesting is that last year at the festival we all knew right from the start that 'Amelie from Montmartre', the French movie, was going to win. This year we have absolutely no idea and it's really going to be difficult for the jury to decide."

How about the famous actors - who has come to Karlovy Vary this year?

"Well, there's been Stephen Fry, Ben Chaplin, Claire Duval and quite a few actors not that famous. Some people may wonder where they are from and what movies they've been in. Sean Connery is supposed to be coming at the end of the week but apparently he's got a bit of a flu, so we'll just have to wait and see. And before I forget, I want to remind our listeners, that I was bragging about the wonderful weather we were having at the festival and I guess I should have kept my mouth shut because we're back to the usual Karlovy Vary weather which means overcast skies, rain and temperatures in the twenties."