Canadian Premiere
Fifty years after his retirement, they were still calling him the greatest runner of all time. Emil Zátopek (played by Václav Neužil) didn’t look like much of an athlete—he was all elbows and knees. He hurled himself down the track, always grimacing, hair in permanent retreat, and he panted so loudly when he ran that they nicknamed him “The Czech Locomotive”. But long distance running doesn’t award points for style, and Zátopek had a knack for crossing the finish line first. In 1952, he won Olympic gold medals in the 5,000m, 10,000m, and the marathon, breaking Olympic records in each event—an unparalleled achievement.
David Ondříček’s engaging movie—the Audience Winner at the 2021 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival—artfully cuts between the famously gregarious runner in retirement, giving eccentric counsel to his friend, the Australian athlete Ron Clarke, while romping through the Czech’s illustrious career highlights, his tense relationship with the communist authorities, and most poignantly, his lifelong love affair with Olympic javelin thrower Dana Zátopková (a spunky Martha Issová).
Audience Award, Karlovy Vary 2021
Václav Neužil, Martha Issová, James Frecheville, Robert Mikluš, Jiří Šimek
Czech Republic/Slovakia
2021
In Czech and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Peter Hujar's Day
Ben Whishaw is extraordinary in this conjuring trick of a movie from Ira Sachs (Passages), a minimalist masterpiece recreating a conversation between New York photographer Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974.
Caravaggio
In the latest from Exhibition on Screen, co-directors David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky shed light not only on Caravaggio's paintings, but his life, often kept half-hidden in the same chiaroscuro tones he shaded his masterpieces with.
Jay Kelly
In Noah Baumbach's wise and witty comedy, George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a world-famous movie star touring Europe with his friend and manager, Ron (Adam Sandler). Faced with nagging dissatisfaction, Jay starts to ask himself some tough questions.
Orwell: 2+2=5
Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck reimagines 1984 in this urgent essay on power, language, and control. With narration by Damian Lewis, it’s a chilling portrait of how Orwell’s warnings became our reality.
Credits
Executive Producer
Daria Špačková
Producer
Kryštof Mucha, David Ondříček
Screenwriter
David Ondříček, Alice Nellis, Jan P. Muchow
Cinematography
Štěpán Kučera
Editor
Jarosław Kaminski
Original Music
Beata Hlavenková
Director
David Ondříček
David Ondříček is a screenwriter, producer, and one of the most distinctive post-revolution Czech directors. He debuted with the film Whisper (1996), followed by Loners (2000), One Hand Can’t Clap (2003), and Grandhotel (2006), all of which are considered Czech classics. His next feature film, In the Shadow (2012), won in all major categories at domestic film awards, and was the Czech Republic’s nominee for the Academy Awards. In 2013, Ondříček was listed in Variety Magazine’s 10 Directors to Watch.
Filmography: Whisper (1996); One Hand Can’t Clap (2003); Grandhotel (2006); In the Shadow (2012)