A behind-the-scenes look at the eleven-year process it took to make The Painted Bird. The narratives of director Václav Marhoul and actor Petr Kotlár weave their way through the various stages of the film's creation, offering their subjective views from the beginning to the last flap of a year-and-a-half long shoot.
A tragicomedy full of slapstick and vignettes, and even an unexpected shootout. A family of villagers moves up in the world - to the county seat. Dad works as a butcher at a meatpacking plant, mom is a checker at a supermarket. The daughter is at odds with her homeroom teacher, while the son - a vegetarian, anarchist, and avid pothead - is apprenticing as a butcher to please his father. The kid's in hot water with both his forewoman and the police. But dad isn't much of an example, letting himself be tempted by the charms of a lovely young butcher. However much mom tries - visiting the beauty parlor, her psychologist, or even the confessional - her husband shows his interest by moving out. Mom plots revenge. And somehow an imp gets mixed up in it all
Vladimír Michálek chose an unconventional adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel for his feature debut. Artistically reminiscent of the classic films of Karel Zeman, the director reinterpreted this dark story of a man vainly seeking a place in a rigidly ordered society by changing the desperate conclusion into a happy end. The film provided Czech comedian Jirí Lábus with a new kind of role: that of the despotic uncle of a main hero Karel Rossman (Martin Dejdar).
Václav Marhoul (Czech: [ˈvaːtslaf ˈmarɦoul]; born 30 January 1960; Prague) is a Czech film director, screenwriter and actor. He studied at Prague's FAMU, graduating in 1984. He directed his first film Mazaný Filip, based on Raymond Chandler's books, in 2003. In 2008, his second film Tobruk was premiered. His next film The Painted Bird, based on Jerzy Kosiński's novel of the same title, premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. He also starred in several films such as Gympl (2007), Ulovit miliardáře (2009) and Cesta do lesa (2012). He is set to make his English-language debut with a biographical film about Joseph McCarthy, with Michael Shannon in the lead role, and co-starring Emilia Clarke, Dane DeHaan and Scoot McNairy.
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