goeast - Competition

			VIERKA / VIERKA, OR THE MYSTERY OF FAMILY B'S DISAPPEARANCE DIRECTOR: MIROSLAV JANEK CZECH REPUBLIC 2005 76 MIN / DIGITAL BETA, COLOR, OV w. engl. ST Caligari: 07.04. / 3.00 pm Bellevue-Saal: 08.04. / 8.00 pm DIRECTOR: Miroslav Janek SCREENPLAY: Miroslav Janek CAMERA: Miroslav Janek EDITOR: Tonicka Jankova PRODUCER: Richard Nemec PRODUCTION: Verbascum, Prag DISTRIBUTION: Verbascum, Prag Tel.: 00420 / 224 930 077 Fax: 00420 / 224 930 384 e-mail: verbascum@email.cz The Czech-born singer Ida Kelarova, known as the “Voice of the Roma”, is the daughter of the famous Rom musician Koloman Bitto. In her concerts and workshops she pleads the cause of intercultural exchange. When she meets the 12-year-old Vierka Berkyova from Slovakia, she is excited by the girl’s musical talent and phenomenal voice. Ida records an LP with Vierka, and is determined to further her extraordinary gifts. That is the beginning of an unusual project, which director Miroslav Janek and his camera crew document close-up. Ida invites Vierka and her extended family to move in with herself and her husband. Different worlds collide: As an assimilated Rom, Ida has very different notions of basic rules in relation to housework, discipline and consumerism. “It can’t be Christmas every day of the year,” she tells her financially dependent house-guests, who listen obediently but make no attempt to change their lethargic ways. Ida reluctantly slips more and more into the role of a prototypical social worker – a helpless helper – who labours to educate stubborn and grown-up children. When it becomes clear that Ida is trying to temporarily remove the young singer from her symbiotic family union, they break off all communication. Vierka moves out with her relatives, and vanishes. Director Janek eventually tracks her down in a smoky disco, where she is singing to earn some money for her family. VIERKA is a finely observed and nuanced document of an encounter that miscarries.

			MIROSLAV JANEK Born in 1954 in Nachod, Czech Republic. Miroslav Janek wrote, directed and produced nearly forty short films before emigrating to the USA in 1979, where he worked as filmeditor and cameraman and taught filmmaking in St. Paul, MN. Back to Czech Republic in 1993, he shot and directed many documentaries for the Czech Television. Currently he resides in Prague and since 1998 teaches at the documentary department of FAMU. In 2000, together with Vit Janecek und Roman Vavra, he wrote and directed the documentary BITVA O ZIVOT, which was presented in competition at goEast 2002. Miroslav Janek’s VIERKA was awarded as best Czech documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Jihlava. FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTION): 1996 Nespatrene / The Unseen 1999 Previanti / Musicians 1999 Hamsa, ja jsem / Hamsa, I Am 2000 Bitva o zivot / The Battle for Life (zus. mit Vit Janecek und Roman Vavra) 2001 Nachove plachty / Crimson Sails 2005 Chacipe / Kha-chee-pae 2005 Vierka / Vierka, or the Mystery of Family B’s Disappearance