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Petr Zelenka

Petr Zelenka

Directing

Biography

Petr Zelenka (born 21 August 1967 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech playwright and director of theatre and film. His films have been recognized at international festivals in Moscow and Rotterdam. In 2008, his film Karamazovi was the Czech Republic's official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film. An early notable work is a black comedy, Tales of Common Insanity (2004) (Czech: Příběhy obyčejného šílenství), which he directed at Dejvické divadlo. He received the Alfréd Radok Award for Best Play. The play was later staged in other Czech theatres as well as in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and Germany. It was also published in English and translated to Russian. For his film Mnâga – Happy End he won the 1996 Findling Award at the Filmfestival Cottbus. In 2005, Zelenka adapted the comedy as a film, released as Wrong Side Up, which won two movie festival awards in 2006 and was nominated for six other awards. His second most notable play is Teremin, inspired by the life of Russian inventor Léon Theremin. His 2008 film, Karamazovi, was the Czech Republic's official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film. His 2010 election advertisement "Přemluv bábu a dědu" caused controversy as critics believed it was offensive against elder people[1] and "an imperfect copy of Sarah Silverman's stand-up video."

Known For

Loners
7.5

Robert works for a travel agency and helps to arrange scenes from the everyday lives of "ordinary" Czech families as an attraction for Japanese tourists. He also works as a kind of matchmaker and occasionally helps to put together some of his friends. He helps to separate his friend Hanka from Peter, an announcer for an independent radio station who tries to capture "real" life by recording the moments from "reality" and playing them over the air. Vesna, came to Prague from Macedonia because it is according to her the best place for UFOs to land, but her real reason for coming is somewhat different... Hanka is followed by the crazy Ondrej, until then a respected brain surgeon, and married with two kids. Through him she meets Jacob, who uses copious amounts of weed in order to be constructive in this gloomy world. On the other hand, this destroys his short-term memory - and he forgets that he already has a girlfriend...

Loners

2000Movie
The Karamazov Brothers
7.0

Dostoevsky’s latter-day opus about the siblings and their father is among the masterpieces of world literature. It asks profound questions about ethics and religion. Is there a God? Does the devil exist? Is everything allowed because we live in a world without morality? And if so, does patricide even constitute a crime? One of the most interesting adaptations of the material is The Karamazovs by Czech director Petr Zelenka. We witness a group of thesps from Prague on a trip to Krakow in Poland to stage the novel as a play in a derelict steelworks as part of the Closer to Life Festival. The project, however, is born under the bad sign, apparently doomed from the start. When they arrive, the roof is about to cave in, so that the actors are told to wear safety helmets. Their sole consistent audience is a laborer (Andrzej Mastalerz) who rather follows each dress rehearsal than watching over his seven-year-old son who has suffered a tragic accident in the factory.

The Karamazov Brothers

2008Movie
Elegance molekuly

It is often only a few hundred meters from the chemical laboratory to the nearest pharmacy. But on this journey, the drug molecule undergoes a process worth hundreds of millions of dollars, often involving thousands of people. That is, the molecule that is lucky enough to reach its destination. The play Elegance of the Molecule follows three such substances and their three "fathers," one of whom was the brilliant Czech chemist Professor Antonín Holý. It explores the creation and dramatic industrial development of substances from Czech chemical laboratories that today treat AIDS in more than sixty percent of patients worldwide. Otto Wichterle had his famous story about how he built a device for centrifuging the first contact lenses using a Merkur construction kit. Petr Zelenka's play looks for such a "Merkur" in the life of chemist Antonín Holý.

Elegance molekuly

2024Movie