Offbeat Films in the Karlovy Vary Film Festival Program

The 59th version of the Karlovy Range Worldwide Movie Competition (KVIFF), which kicks off within the Czech spa city on Friday, is as soon as once more providing up a mixture of world premieres and hidden gems to find, in addition to highlights from the pageant circuit of the previous 12 months. 

As is custom, Central Europe’s largest cinema fest and celebration will function regional and worldwide movies, with KVIFF will as soon as once more presenting some extra edgy, sure, even outright weird sounding films. 

Right here is THR‘s have a look at a number of the extra uncommon and offbeat movies that KVIFF will unspool for cineasts, tastemakers and trade insiders at its 2025 version, operating July 4-12.

The “Czechoslovak Tom Jones”
Duchoň
Particular Screenings part

Czardas of Two Hearts, Within the Slovak Valleys and I Love You — these are the titles of a number of the hits that made pop singer Karol Duchoň right into a family title greater than 4 many years in the past. Now, the youthful generations within the Czech Republic and Slovakia are discovering the legacy of the person nicknamed the “Czechoslovak Tom Jones.”

Peter Bebjak (The Line, Nineties) presents a cinematic portrait of the singer at KVIFF that’s based mostly on a stage play by Jiří Havelka and Róbert known as The Earth Remembers (Zem pamätá). The pageant web site teases you could anticipate “refined irony.”

All in all, we get the sensation that “It’s Not Uncommon” might not be the track to explain this one.

A Demon Referred to as Jimmy Jaguar, or Jagu
Jimmy Jaguar
Crystal Globe Competitors part

“Jimmy Jaguar, aka Jagu, is a demon who drifts from soul to soul, awakening one thing darkish inside. His hosts turn into vessels of revenge.”

So reads the ominous synopsis of the Hungarian movie written and directed by Bence Fliegauf. Wait, there’s extra, in line with the pageant web site: “Why do their victims, chosen with no clear sample, all appear to share the identical eerie trait?” They’re alive solely as a result of “it’s towards the legislation to kill them’.”

The movie is about within the “huge, unforgiving plains of Hungary, the place silence hangs heavy and secrets and techniques sleep beneath the soil. Pay attention carefully, and also you would possibly hear the silence rumble with menace… or catch echoes of a buried previous.

Peruvian time journey
The Anatomy of the Horses
Proxima Competitors part

How’s this for a cinematic teaser with a twist? “Defeated in fight, Ángel returns house to his village in a distant a part of the Peruvian Andes. When he arrives, nonetheless, he finds the place has utterly modified. What was the 18th century is now the current day.”

On this co-production between Spain, Peru, Colombia, and France, director Daniel Vidal Toche, who co-wrote the film with Ignacio Vuelta, dissects what the individuals who reside in Peru in the present day are preventing for and whether or not there’s nonetheless a spot for revolutionary pondering. Ángel is joined in his quest by Eustaquia, a woman trying to find her sister. 

It seems like audiences can anticipate a hell of a experience, each when it comes to presentation and story. With cinematography by Angello Faccini, The Anatomy of the Horses “takes the viewer on a visually and intellectually stimulating journey via the space-time continuum,” KVIFF guarantees.

Eccentric Twins
Higher Go Mad within the Wild
Crystal Globe Competitors part

Author-director Miro Remo’s newest loosely develops a theme explored within the guide of the identical title by Aleš Palán and Jan Šibík, which “provocatively asks whether or not it’s doable to spend your entire life in a single place,” in line with KVIFF.

In what seems like an absurdist experience outdoors the norms of society, it tells the story of twins František and Ondřej Klišík, who’ve determined to just do that, far-off from civilization. “Loopy eccentrics or charismatic, possessed storytellers?” asks the pageant web site.

Both method, “of their real bucolic enchantment, they provide us all the possibility to distill our supply of inspiration, these of us who generally tire of conformist adherence to order.”

An “explosive” movie a couple of Syrian refugee camp on the outskirts of Berlin
TrepaNation
Proxima Competitors part

A Syria, Germany, France co-production getting the KVIFF highlight is without doubt one of the longest movies at this 12 months‘s fest, clocking in at 222 minutes. 

And it’s prone to trigger debate, so far as its abstract suggests. “Germany, September 2014. A Syrian refugee camp has opened on the outskirts of Berlin. Visible artist and filmmaker Ammar al-Beik has a cubicle assigned to him for seven months and, to be able to survive right here, he has to movie, doc and insurgent towards the situations of life in exile, and in addition towards the established guidelines of documentaries and options. His cellphone digital camera is all the time switched on; he transforms his tiny room and all the dismal compound right into a universe with its personal legal guidelines. Ammar’s explosive movie is the results of 10 years of enhancing; the intensive autobiography intersects the historical past of Europe and the Center East, and movie historical past, too.”

Al-Beik didn’t simply direct the movie — he’s additionally credited with the cinematography, sound, enhancing and artwork course. However his story is shared by many others. Says the KVIFF web site concerning the movie: “The singular cinematographic type is flanked with memorable people who, like exiled Ammar al-Beik, are merely trying to find freedom and fact.”

Convergence alert! Gaming turns into a participant
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Cinematic Lower
Particular Screenings part

A world-famous role-playing sport developed by Prague’s Warhorse Studios makes its cinematic debut as a movie specifically created for the Karlovy Range pageant. “This distinctive piece gives a robust viewing expertise — a deal with each for followers of the cult pc sport and for individuals who have but to enter its intriguing world,” the KVIFF web site guarantees.

Daniel Vávra and Petr Pekař are credited as administrators of the film, which is bringing the fest into the gaming world. Inventive director Karel Och calls it “an exceptionally authentic contribution to our long-standing purpose of presenting highly effective and gripping tales captured in a singular method.”

“It’s the 12 months 1403, and the Bohemian Kingdom is in chaos. Whereas roaming marauders sow worry and terror via a kingdom and not using a clear ruler, Henry of Skalitz seeks to avenge his murdered mother and father,” reads a synopsis. “As an ally of the rightful king, he’s despatched to accompany Sir Hans Capon on a diplomatic mission. After they’re brutally attacked, nonetheless, Henry and Hans bear a collection of harmful adventures that topic them and their friendship to the final word check.”

Forbidden love
Don’t Name Me Mama
Crystal World Competitors part

“Eva is a well-liked trainer who’s married to the native mayor. Though he has betrayed her belief, she nonetheless plans to assist his election marketing campaign, and so she begins to volunteer at a neighborhood refugee heart.” Up to now, so good. 

However the movie from Norway’s Nina Knag’s, who has made a reputation for herself as a casting director and who co-wrote the function with Kathrine Valen Zeiner, confronts us with an even bigger problem. In spite of everything, Eva “grows near 18-year-old refugee Amir, who charms her together with his poetic skills,” the movie synopsis provides. “However the nearer they get, the much less management she has over the state of affairs.”

Fireworks sound seemingly. Or, as KVIFF places it extra philosophically: “A drama about forbidden love, Don’t Name Me Mama confronts its protagonists with an ethical check whereas provocatively exploring how hypocrisy can masquerade as generosity.”

The Wim Wenders-Impressed Czech Film Venture
The Czech Movie Venture
Particular Screenings part 

In case you are in search of a blast from the previous with a neighborhood twist or are curious how Wim Wenders retains inspiring Czech creatives, this challenge from administrators Marek Novák and Novotný could also be for you.

“On the 1982 Cannes Movie Competition, Wim Wenders invited a number of of his esteemed colleagues to a lodge room, the place he filmed their reflections on the way forward for movie,” highlights the KVIFF synopsis. “This unique documentary survey, Room 666, impressed two Czech producers to have interaction in an analogous endeavor in collaboration with the Karlovy Range Worldwide Movie Competition. Throughout final 12 months’s pageant, they thus invited round 30 Czech or Czech-based filmmakers from all generations and requested them ‘what makes Czech movie Czech?’” 

The result’s in and prepared for its world premiere. The fest teases “an thrilling mosaic not simply of views and opinions, but in addition of mannerisms and personalities.”