Sbormistr

The world of teenage singers, prestigious concerts and tours of the dream America, that is the famous girls' choir, which thirteen-year-old Karolína (Kateřina Falbrová) aspires to join in the early 1990s. During the crucial season, she has to compete with talented competitors, including her older sister Lucie (Maya Kintera), and gain the respect of the admired choirmaster (Juraj Loj). However, the fragile tread around a creative relationship with an authority whose methods Karolína is unable to see through can easily slip away. The director and screenwriter was particularly inspired by the sexual abuse case that broke out in the 2000s around the Bambini di Praga choir. In that case, the court hearing was particularly remarkable, where the contradictory testimonies of former choir members were pitted against each other. “I then tried to create a fictional story that would vividly show the roots of different interpretations of the past,” says Provazník. “In similar cases that have been hushed up for years, society often does not believe the victims. Even their loved ones – friends or family – question their truthfulness, memory, and integrity. But few realize how complex their relationship with the perpetrator is. How burdensome and at the same time fragile their experience is,” the director explains the motivation for filming, adding: “In the film, we try to bring this inner experience closer to the viewer – in a non-schematic way, in an emotional story, with all its ups and downs.” The creators are of course aware that their story revolves around a complex topic and may arouse controversy. "We are counting on that, but at the same time we believe that the film is made as comprehensively and sensitively as possible," added producer Jiří Konečný, adding that parents with their teenage children can also come to the cinema to see the film.