Thu 26.05.2022 | 15:00The Herd (2021)
Section: Competition of European Documentary Films for Young Audience
Directed by: Monika Kotecka, Karolina Poryzala
Poland, 2021, 80 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
InfoMembers of the Volteo amateur female equestrian vaulting club get a chance to join the Polish national team. They take on this overwhelming and costly challenge. Three girls of different ages will have to overcome their own weaknesses to achieve their joint goal. The tension grows from one training session to the next. Entering the professional level means higher demands and stress, and constant indulgence of the weak takes away the strength of the group. Will the girls, who call themselves "the herd", persist in the pursuit of their dreams? Will they sacrifice individual ambitions to become a professional team? A documentary about true friendship, team spirit, and how sometimes the path to success, even if it is bumpy, can turn out to be more valuable than the goal itself.
Thu 26.05.2022 | 17:30Grandma Chance (2022)
Section: New Czech Film and TV Programmes
Directed by: Pavel Jakeš
Czech Republic, 2022, 26 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
A mix of grandmother and energetic teen; that's how Zdenka Wasserbauer (82) is described by those around her. To understand her, we need to go back to when both her grandson and film director Pavel Jakeš suffered from childhood leukemia. Pavel was cured, but his friend Honza was not so lucky; a suitable bone marrow donor couldn't be found. “Grandmother Chance” has been spreading awareness and expanding the registry of bone marrow donors for more than 25 years.
Fri 27.05.2022 | 09:40Ride the Wave (2021)
Section: Competition of European Documentary Films for Young Audience
Directed by: Martyn Robertson
United Kingdom, 2021, 84 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 4
Score:
Having participated in surfing competitions from the age of 11, 14-year-old Scottish champion Ben Larg is not afraid of a challenge. And what bigger challenge for a young surfer than one of the biggest and most dangerous cold water waves in the world at Mullaghmore, Ireland. If he gets it right, he joins an elite group. If he gets it wrong, the consequences are terrifying. Danger, opportunity, and parental dilemma collide propelling Ben and his family towards an unknown destiny.
Fri 27.05.2022 | 17:00Gabi, Between the Ages 8 and 13 (2021)
Section: Competition of European Documentary Films for Young Audience, Patron of Children Audience Award
Directed by: Engeli Brobert
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, 2021, 77 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
We follow the remarkable Gabi over the course of five formative years as she wrestles with society’s stereotypes about boys and girls. When her family moves from Stockholm to a small rural town, and as puberty kicks in, Gabi must decide whether she wants to fit in with the crowd or chart her own path.
Fri 27.05.2022 | 18:30The Solstices of Petr Nikl (2022)
Section: New Czech Film and TV Programmes
Directed by: Pavel Jirásek
Czech Republic, 2022, 52 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 3
Score:
The personality and unique way of thinking of a leading Czech painter, musician, and performer. Petr Nikl, a founding member of the art group Tvrdohlaví and, among others, a laureate of the Jindřich Chalupeký Award, is an intermedia artist with classical roots who freely and convincingly expresses himself through traditional art techniques, books, interactive projects, and improv events based on performance, theatre, and musical performances.
Sat 28.05.2022 | 17:00Boney Piles (2022)
Section: Competition of European Documentary Films for Young Audience
Directed by: Taras Tomenko
Ukraine, 2022, 80 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
On New Year's Eve, Nastya was six years old when their house was bombed by the Russian army. For her and other children, war became a daily reality. To return to normal life, Nastya needs the help of a psychologist; she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. But she does not give up on her dreams; like every girl, she wants a big house, a pet, and an education. This painfully recent Ukrainian film shows children in the Donetsk region. Every morning they must wade through the mountains of ruins and bombed out buildings. These rubble heaps are not only where the film takes place, but also a symbol of the used up and abandoned human lives. The documentary premiered at the Berlinale just before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. At that time, official statistics showed 10,000 children living in the war zone…
Sun 29.05.2022 | 17:00Hello World (2021)
Section: Competition of European Documentary Films for Young Audience
Directed by: Kenneth Elvebakk
Norway, Sweden, 2021, 88 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
While their classmates and friends are doing everything to fit in, Runa, Dina, Viktor, and Joachim (aged 12-14) are defining themselves differently. They are the first people to be openly gay in their classes and the youngest ones in their respective communities to come out. But building pride is not easy in a world where hate messages are just a click away, and even harder in schools where administration and education systems seek to erase and marginalize outstanding voices. What is it really like to be the only open queer in the whole school? Told through the eyes of the four young people, the film gives us a window into understanding what it is like to grow up as a queer.
Sun 29.05.2022 | 19:00The Apple Day (2022)
Section: Festival Laurels from around the World , Patron of Children Audience Award
Directed by: Mahmoud Ghaffari
Iran, 2022, 79 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 4
Score:
A first-grade primary school teacher in a poor suburb of Tehran assigns a letter to each student and asks them to bring items starting with an assigned letter, related to their fathers’ jobs. Mehdi's father is a fruit seller and Mehdi must bring 30 apples (“Seeb” in Farsi) to class on the “S” Day. However, an unfortunate event immerses the family in a crisis. Saeed, Mehdi's older brother, must find a way to overcome this challenge and help Mehdi for “apple day”.
Mon 30.05.2022 | 09:40Animal (2021)
Section: Competition of European Documentary Films for Young Audience
Directed by: Cyril Dion
France, 2021, 105 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 4
Score:
Bella and Vipulan, both 16, are of a generation that believes its future is in danger. Due to climate change and a 6th mass extinction, the world may be uninhabitable in 50 years. Even as they sound the alarm, nothing happens. So they decide to tackle the heart of the problem, which is man's relationship with all life. In the course of their journey, they realise how deeply intertwined humans are with all living species. By protecting them, we save ourselves. Humans thought they could cut themselves off from nature, but they are part of it. After all, man is also an Animal.
Mon 30.05.2022 | 14:00First-time Voters 2021 (2022)
Section: New Czech Film and TV Programmes
Directed by: Markéta Ekrt Válková
Czech Republic, 2022, 53 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 4
Score:
The development and shaping of the political views of several young people from different social backgrounds and schools – apprentice school kids to private high school students – just before the elections in autumn 2021 in relation to their social environments. Young people hold political stances across the political spectrum, from ANO to SPOLU to PirSTAN. It is thus a collective portrait of one generation, its ideas about adulthood, the future, and state of our society.
Mon 30.05.2022 | 15:30When the Lion Roars (2022)
Section: New Czech Film and TV Programmes
Directed by: Jan Eliáš Svatoš
Czech Republic, 2022, 100 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 2
Score:
In Dante's purgatory, two important figures of the Czech Middle Ages meet: King Přemysl Otakar II and the traveling monk Odorik, the first European to see Tibet. The two swap stories. The monks tells of his journeys and the king of his reign: successes, losses and injustices. They find unexpected common ground; one had a book stolen and the other a kingdom. The story takes us back in time to the Czech kingdom’s greatest territorial expansion.
Mon 30.05.2022 | 19:00Music by Zdeněk Liška (2017)
Section: Special Mention
Directed by: Pavel Klusák
Czech Republic, 2017, 53 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 4
Score:
Music composer Zdeněk Liška’s name is tied to dozens of titles of Czechoslovak cinematography from the 1960s on. His unmistakable writing was appreciated by film directors and they respected him as a co-author of their work. When composing for a symphonic orchestra, a brass band, stringed instruments, or piano, he used various instruments, as well as electronics, and sound effects. A portrait of the ingeniously diverse Liška responding to the current rising international interest in him.
Tue 31.05.2022 | 14:30One Classroom (2022)
Section: New Czech Film and TV Programmes
Directed by: Petr Hátle
Czech Republic, 2022, 53 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 5
Score:
Venezuelan Grecia, Vietnamese Linda, and Ukrainian Andrei are students of the inclusive META school, supporting the integration of young migrants into Czech society. Their families came to the Czech Republic under different circumstances; each has different ideas about their future. The boxer Andrej wants to become independent ASAP, the artistically-gifted Grecia would like to get into a secondary art school, and Linda is still looking for her own path to education and a career.
Tue 31.05.2022 | 15:00Brotherhood (2021)
Section: Festival Laurels from around the World
Directed by: Francesco Montagner
Czech Republic, Italy, 2021, 92 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
Jabir, Usama and Useir are three young Bosnian brothers born into a pastoral family. They grew up in the shadow of their father, Ibrahim, a strict radical Islamist preacher. When Ibrahim is sentenced to two years in prison for participating in war and terrorism, the boys are suddenly left to themselves. Once their father's demands and strict doctrine disappear, their lives change drastically. The brothers explore the limits of their newfound freedom on the difficult path to becoming men.
Tue 31.05.2022 | 17:30Velvet Zlín (2022)
Section: Special Mention
Directed by: Petr Babinec
Czech Republic, 2022, 54 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 6
Score:
A documentary about the Velvet Revolution in Zlín told through its participants and interspersed with unique found historical footage.
Wed 01.06.2022 | 16:00Tonight´s Homework (2021)
Section: World Childrens Film Panorama
Directed by: Ashkan Nejati, Mehran Nematollahi
Iran, 2021, 78 min
Projection place: Golden Apple Cinema 3
Score:
Abbas Kiarostami’s film Homework inspired the making of this film. The intention was to find out whether after three decades, students and parents are still faced with the challenge of homework – meaning assignments intended to be done at home. In this film we meet children whose life experiences that are significantly different from their peers; children who try to develop their talents and capabilities despite great difficulties.