Tomáš Pertold

March to May

A family of five lives together in an old village house. While the parents are slowly aging, the children are growing up, and it is clear that they will soon go their own way. This unchanging rhythm of everyday life is disrupted by the unexpected news of the mother’s pregnancy, and the idea of a new sibling gradually affects all members of the household. March to May is an understated, intimate portrait of family togetherness, which is often expressed in the smallest of ways. An unassuming yet highly original story, filmed with the same tenderness and patience with which nature awakens every spring. Vojtěch Kočárník (kviff.com)

You Will Never See It All

Conceptual visual artist Ján Mančuška died in 2011. However, in his short 39 years of existence, he managed to create a number of remarkable works, many of which have been exhibited in renowned galleries around the world – including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and MoMA in New York. In his homeland, however, his work reflecting everyday life, social reality or the meaning of language has never achieved comparable fame. Together with the children of an artist who was not afraid to confront the public with the question of the meaning of art, the director embarks on a journey that aims not only to get closer to Mančuška, but also to reveal him in hitherto unrecognised shades, thus filling in the gaps that are increasingly appearing in the context of the fading memory of his personality.

If I Ever Lose My Eyes

A film journey through places near and far, real and dreamy, on the border between reality and fiction, where it is possible to learn how close the realm of the invisible lies and to contemplate whether it is possible to approach the invisible through film. Guides on this journey are various explorers who present their elusive experiences with researching and capturing imprints of the invisible – former filmmakers, a forgotten film movement, a local history expert, a mountaineer, a professor, and the director, Lea Petříková, herself. But the more they reveal, the more complicated it gets.

Eighth Day

A religious sect congregates by a lake in a forest. They are preparing to perform a baptism the next day, but teenage Anna has her own plans. She is fed up with life in the strict community and longs to experience freedom for the first time.

Paradise on Earth to See

Matys is an outsider who moved from Ukraine to Czechia with his sister in search of a better life. It turns out the situation there is not ideal either. A glimpse of hope comes when Matys manages to get a job in a cottage located in the heart of a splendid forest.

Parole

Filip is released on parole from a youth detention center and returns home to his mother, who is being seemingly helpful with his integration back to life. However, in a familiar environment surrounded by people from his past, Filip's frustration starts to show.