Poberta

The main character of the film Poberta is called Luboš, but among his friends he is known by the nickname Lupyn (Matyáš Řezníček). During the pandemic, he returns from prison to his hometown and, under the guise of this exceptional situation, plans another "deal" with his cronies. The local mafia Asasín (Stanislav Majer) and a corrupt police lieutenant (Václav Neužil) try to find out who is causing harm in their area and make the most of it for themselves. Lupyn, on the other hand, needs money for a new life with his love Tamara (Denisa Barešová), so he seizes the opportunity. The originality of the film and the ease with which Poberta oscillates between genres are enhanced by the voice of Pavel Zedníček as the narrator. "In some films, the narrator's role is to explain the plot, but that's not our case. Pavel Zedníček has a specific voice that gives the whole story a framework. In Poberta, we tell a story that may or may not have happened. We may have made it up a bit, but at the same time, there is always a bit of truth in every story," says director Ondřej Hudeček. And Matyáš Řezníček, in the role of the clumsy thief Lupyn, who, by getting entangled in a spiral of lies and absurd situations, amuses and arouses sympathy, adds: "I really like playing characters who are not primarily bad or primarily good. Lupyn can be called an 'anti-hero', and that is always a very entertaining discipline, because you can see what he is being led to do, and the actor's role at that moment is to somehow defend it." Ondřej Hudeček is known as the director of the internationally acclaimed short feature film Furiant (including the award for best director at Sundance) and the successful documentary made in co-production with the USA and Canada called Tapes from Nagano (including the Czech Film Critics Award for best film in the Non-Cinema category). The film is produced by Tomáš Hrubý from the Czech and Slovak company Nutprodukce. The company has produced, for example, the respected miniseries Hořící keř, the series Pustina and Dodešření or the films Manželé Stodolovi or Summer School, 2001. Poberta became the first Czech feature film included by the artistic director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Karel Och, in the program of the nationwide Tady Vary screening, within which it was presented in an exclusive preview in 70 domestic cinemas.