Král Velichovek . King of Velichovky
Duration: 00:52:00 The dramatic story of the Seissers, a Sudeten-German family of prosperous land-owners from Velichovky, a little spa town in Bohemia. Drawing on a large family film archive and the recollections of relatives and contemporaries, the director performs at once the function of family c...
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| Institution: | Open Society Archives at Central European University |
| Language: | Czech |
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Štoll Martin ; PragaFilm
2005
Czech Republic |
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10891/osa:a58f8909-b161-43b6-a6bf-e76c706c9813 |
| Summary: | Duration: 00:52:00
The dramatic story of the Seissers, a Sudeten-German family of prosperous land-owners from Velichovky, a little spa town in Bohemia. Drawing on a large family film archive and the recollections of relatives and contemporaries, the director performs at once the function of family chronicler and “time archeologist”, reconstructing their life in the 1930-40s, as everyday routine and festivities become more and more intertwined with 'big history'. Karl's oldest daughter Lili gets married to a Czech doctor in 1934 and the family travels to Germany for the occasion, filming the changing face of Berlin. Ria is dating a low-class clerk of German origin, who gradually starts taking advantage of his ethnic background. Edith, the youngest and most stubborn and rational, falls for a Nazi colonel much older then herself. The birth of their son coincides with his promotion to general in the German army. Adding to the private recordings a soundtrack which is at times meditative or anxious, the director makes us ponder on the complex fusion of personal choices and responsibilities. The flow of time, neither completely lost nor fully recaptured, is nurtured by exceptional intimacy, reachable only with very close people. In 1992, the director Jan Šikl founded an Archive of Private Film History. King of Velichovky is part of the on-going project called Private Century. |
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| Published: | 2005 |