Shadow Country

2005 - victory - Happiness - Best Director, Best Screenplay
2008 - victory - Country Teacher - Best Screenplay
2008 - nomination - Country Teacher - Best Director
2012 - nomination - Four Suns - Best Director, Best Screenplay
2017 - victory - Ice Mother - Best Screenplay, Best Director
2020 - nomination - Shadow Country - Best Director

2012 - victory - Four Suns - Best Screenplay
2017 - victory - Ice Mother - Best Screenplay

2020 - victory - Shadow Country - Best Screenplay

2020 - nomination - Shadow Country - Best Screenplay

Character: Marie Veberová

He is an orphan and comes to the village of Schwarzwald from the city. She marries a peasant farmer, Karl Weber, twenty years her senior. Her character is cheerful and a little whimsical. For a woman from the village, she likes to dress up. She has her own sewing machine and even a gramophone. She likes to listen to modern music on it. She is quickly becoming popular in the village because of her immediate openness and willingness to help anyone. Mother Vebra's daughter-in-law doesn't go too far. He instructs her in German on what to do, but she doesn't understand, she only knows Czech. At the beginning of the war, Marie does not agree to have her husband transcribe her German nationality. Nevertheless, under pressure from her family, she complies. During the war she bears the German occupation hard. However, she undergoes a fundamental change after the brutal death of her husband Karl. The once cheerful, charming woman no longer wears black. She lives in one room in her house, the rest is occupied by the new owner who has taken the house. Their three cows have been stolen, and their curtains hang outside the windows in the house next door. Some neighbours return their stolen items (often secretly by putting them behind the door), others do not. The whole family must wear white armbands and are not allowed to walk on the sidewalk. Despite all this, Marie is the archetype of a woman who cannot be brought to her knees even by harrowing circumstances.

Magdalena Borová (1981) was born in Frýdlant, Bohemia, but grew up in Liberec. During her studies at grammar school she worked in the theatre group Stopa. After graduation she moved to Prague and started studying at DAMU. During her studies she was a guest in several theatres - for example in Studio Two or Drama Club. In 2004, she won the Alfréd Radok Award for acting in the Talent of the Year category. Since 2004 she has been a member of the National Theatre Drama Department. She has appeared in several television films, such as Hrubeš and Mareš are Friends in the Rain, I, Olga Hepnarová and Landscape in the Shadow.

Character: Karel Veber

Karel Vébr is actually a rich man by local village standards. He is the only one who has a small tractor in the village. He married his wife Maria quite late, after he was fifty. More or less under pressure from her authoritarian mother. But she wasn't too happy with his choice of partner. However, the pretty young Marie, an orphan from a nearby town, charmed Charles. Perhaps because of her extrovertedness and assertiveness. Well, opposites attract. He himself is a thoughtful introvert, a rather solitary type. And so he is sometimes caught between two fires in the household: on one side stands the temperamental Marie and on the other the aging mother who is gradually losing her influence over her first-born son. Karel prefers his peace and therefore finds some situations very difficult to handle. And he runs away from things rather than determining their direction. But he loves his new wife more than he expected at the beginning. Nor does he take the circumstances of the occupation lightly. Although he considers himself more of a German, he certainly wants nothing to do with Reich politics. Although he has helped many people during the war, he cannot escape the fury of the self-appointed judges thanks to his wealth.

Stanislav Majer (1978) was born in Louny and trained as a carpenter. He performs at the Drama Studio in Ústí nad Labem and since September 2012 also at the Na zábradlí Theatre. In the past he was a member of the Comedy Theatre. He became known to a wider audience thanks to the series Ulice. He has also appeared in the series The Wonderland and The Miracles of Life. His first major film opportunity was given by director Jan Hřebejk in a film adaptation of the play Waste, City, Death. An important milestone in his acting career is undoubtedly the lead role alongside Anna Geislerová in the film drama Honeymoon. He also shone in Bohdan Sláma's film Landscape in the Shadows. Many critics predict a promising future for Majer as an actor.

Czech Lion

2020 - Shadow Country - nominations

Character: Josef Pachl

Josef Pachl is a man in his prime. Although intelligent and well-read, he often doubts himself. He's certainly not a predatory fighter. Rather, he's an emotional and compassionate man. But when that builds up, he can explode and then act inappropriately harsh. He's been under the spell of Communist propaganda since he was young. He is an idealist who believes that only a classless society and common ownership of things will make order even in their village. He is the main organizer of the Friends of the Soviet Union in the region. Sometimes he wears round glasses that make him look like an intellectual. The great mystery is why he has the most beautiful woman in the area, the daughter of a Jewish merchant, Elen, as his wife. He often asks himself this question. However, this is the woman he loves most in the world. He writes her ardent love poems and even composed a short ballad for her. The fact that he loses his most beloved person during the war transforms his character to revenge. He sets in motion a wild chain of events which he bitterly regrets at the end.

Csongor Kassai (1972) was born in Kralovsky Chlmec. The name Csongor is of Hungarian-Turkish origin. He graduated from the secondary school of electro-industry, but immediately after graduation he joined the Thalia Theatre in Košice, where he got a permanent engagement. He graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, majoring in acting. Since 1996, he has been a member of the Radošín Naive Theatre, and he has been a guest at the Drama Theatre of the Slovak National Theatre and the New Stage. He also performs in other theatres. He is probably best known for his role as the Jewish young man David Wiener in Jan Hřebejk's film We Must Help Each Other, for which he won the Literary Fund Prize. He also gave a great performance as Lucifer in Roman Vávra's fairy tale Čert ví proč (The Devil Knows Why), in which he even refused to be represented by a stuntman and filmed all the scenes himself. He can be found in a number of Czech-Slovak films, starting with Martin Šulík's Krajinka / Landscape, Juraj Nvota's Kruté Radosty / Cruel Joys, Slunečné Státem / The Sunshine State and, most recently, Krajina ve stínu / Landscape in the Shadows. When asked what film role he would like to play, he says Forrest Gump.

Character: Anna Svitková

Anna Svitková is a resolute woman. She owns a pub in the village, she is enterprising. She directs and influences events, including the life of her brother, Karel Vebro, who is indecisive and listens to his sister in almost everything (often to the disapproval of his wife, Marie). When the villagers have to decide between Czech and German citizenship because of the census, Anna makes a rational, pragmatic decision and encourages her brother Karel to do the same. After all, there are advantages - she runs the pub and is a single mother and her brother owns the farm. She is even proud when her only son goes to the front to fight for the ideas of the Reich. But everything changes suddenly when Anna receives news that her son has been killed in action. In an instant, her idea of a well-ordered life is shattered. She is unhappy, despairing, suffering the loss of her beloved son. Eventually, in the tense moments of the war's end, she is tried by a people's court and then killed, mainly because of her affiliation. Her property is dismantled by her neighbours.

Petra Špalková (1975) was born in Brno and from the age of ten she performed in productions of the Brno Theatre on a String. Her other engagements include the Prague Drama Club, Theatre Na zábradlí and the National Theatre in Prague. In 1997, she won the Thalia Award for a young drama actor under 33 years of age. She has appeared regularly in films since the 1990s, first in the musical The Summer of the Jackals, then in the film Kolya and the tragicomedy Babí léto. In 2002, she was nominated for the Czech Lion Award for the film Strangers, and in 2013 she won the Czech Lion and the Czech Film Critics Award for her starring role in the psychological drama Jako nikdy. In Pustina she plays the character of Vice-Mayor Masařová.