Helena Třeštíková's Retrospective  

20 years of a life spent mainly in prisons. A man who starts over again and again, fails, becomes a writer and keeps challenging the director. In 1989, Helena Třeštíková starts to film juvenile delinquent René. She follows the rhythm of his life, most of which is spent in prisons, interrupted only by brief stretches of freedom. 20 years during which epoch-making social upheavals take place, systems, regimes and governments change – depicted by televised images that reach René’s cell and he has his own opinion about all of them. A contradictory and shifting relationship reflected by René in his letters to Třeštíková. The filmmaker practically becomes the second character. René, whom she helps to become a successful writer over the years, turns out to be an equal but difficult partner. He demands attention as rigorously as he questions the relationship between him and filmmaker, which continue even after he robs her flat and steels her camera. 

Awards

European Film Award – Best European Documentary, 2008
Jihlava International Film Festival – Audience Award, 2008
Leipzig DOK Festival – Golden Dove for Long Footage Award, 2008

Helena Třeštíková

Helena Třeštíková graduated from the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU, Prague. Since 1974 she has worked as a professional documentary filmmaker, and has made around fifty documentary films of various lengths and formats, mostly on the themes of human relationships and various social issues. Later on she started to specialize on so called time-lapse documentaries – long term observation of people’s destiny. Since winter 2002 she became a professor at FAMU, Documentary department. She has recently started to closely cooperate with “Negativ Production”.

Selected filmography

The Miracle / Zázrak, 1975
Two Jubilees ofJan Zrzavý / Dve jubilea Jana Zrzavého, 1976
For Love / Z lásky, 1987
A Thousand Years of Sobriety / Tisíc lets trízlivosti, 1987
Marriage Stories / Manzelské etudy, 1987
Tell Me Something about Yourself, Rene / Řekni mi něco o sobě – René, 1992
Tell Me Something about Yourself, Lada / Řekni mi něco o sobě – Láďa, 1993
The Sweet Century / Sladkéstoletí, 1997
People, I Love You! / Lidé, mámvásrád!, 1998
Carmen Story, 1999
Women at theTurn of the Millennium / Zeny na prelomutisíciletí, 2001
Events of Pavel Stecha / Události Pavla Štechy, 2004

Married Couple’s Etudes after Twenty Years / Manzelské etudy po dvaceti letech, 2006
Marcela, 2007
Rene / René, 2008
Katka, 2011
Private Universe / Soukromý vesmír, 2012
Life with a Jester / Život s Kašparem, 2013
Mallory, 2015
Doomed Beauty / Zkáza krásou, 2015