Description

There is no doubt that Czech cinematography reaches one of its highlights in The Painted Bird. Not only the outstanding performances of world-class actors but also the stunning visual poetics of the film by director Václav Marhoul were nominated for the main competition of the Venice Film Festival as well as participation in the Toronto festival. A unique collection of black-and-white photographs by Jan Dobrovský, among others, author of the book Families (Paseka and 400 ASA, 2019), now in the form of a photographic essay captures the unique artistic tone of the film and the circumstances of its creation. Dobrovský, who became the only official photographer of the movie, worked on the set for almost two years and his photographs draw attention to the tension between fiction and reality, mainly a really thin line between them. In this way, he created an original testimony that, like the film, can tell urgently without words, a story that is raw yet deeply human.