“Gottland” is a full-length documentary film and a series of documentary episodes based on a bestselling collection of reportages, under the same title, by Mariusz Szczygiel (winner of Nike Literary Award and European Book Prize 2009). Young documentary film makers from renowned Prague Film School FAMU, inspired by the book, take a closer look at the history of post-war Czechoslovakia and Czech Republic, in order to discover new heroes and remind us of the ones that were forgotten or erased from the history. By examining events from the First Czechoslovak Republic and World War II, looking at stories from 50s and 60s and from the period of normalisation, they ask about the consequences of those groundbreaking events. Are we always right in distinguishing, which events where the vital ones? In stories that appear familiar, are we always sure to tell, who is the real hero and who is the traitor?

Gottland is a result of Czech-Polish- Slovak collaboration. It was produced by Prague based Nutprodukce, coproduced by Centrala as well as Czech Television, Bfilm, FAMU and Lower Silesian Film Fund. The film combines traditional documentary form, feature film elements and animation. The episode „Darling of the Nation” was shot entirely in Wroclaw, with Czech movie stars: Jaroslava Pokorna ( starring in „Burning Bush” by Agnieszka Holland) and Jan Vondracek (an actor from „Alois Nebel” nominated for the European Film Awards). Gottland was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, Slovak Audiovisual Fund and Czech Film Fund.

 The main strength of this film, is also the main strength of the book by Mariusz Szczygieł, and that is the deep humanism and understanding when telling complicated stories in the context of particular time and circumstances.

Gottland is for an audience, who likes to search. Fans of Szczygiel’s book will definitely find something interesting in the film, as will fans of reportage in general. It is however important to stress here, that the true value of this film comes from its unconventional approach to the book. The stories told in the book had become points of departure for the young generation of Czech filmmakers. The filtering of stories through the eyes of the young Czechs and the way of drawing the connection between then and now, is what generates a new value to the stories from Gottland. The diversity in forms and unique, often experimental approach to documentary film narrative, results in a film that, though very different, is as interesting as the book.

More: https://www.facebook.com/GottlandFilm

 “Gottland” is Wrocławska Fundacja Filmowa’s debut in film distribution.