“This country is a drug. Clean. Concentrated. A monochrome drug. ”This is how the director describes her experience with Antarctica. The central motif of FREM is the idea of what a world in which people do not dominate would look like. Whether due to a climate catastrophe or the development of artificial intelligence.
This documentary sci-fi takes place entirely on the inhospitable white plains of Antarctica and is the first Czech feature film to be shot here. “It has such a dystopian dimension, because people may not always be present on the planet as key actors,” says director Viera Čákanyová.
During the filming, the director kept a diary, from which another film was made
FREM was premiered at the world at last year’s Ji.hlava festival and at the international premiere at the prestigious Berlinale festival. Numerous festival screenings at world festivals were complemented by the Pavel Koutecký Award for the best Czech documentary debut.
During the filming of FREM, the author inadvertently began shooting the second film, White on White, this time about human perception and self-reflection in the Antarctic wind, in a landscape that leads to hypnotic meditation.
“In Antarctica, you have enough time to defragment your brain. I started shooting the second film basically as such therapeutic walks with a camera, “adds the filmmaker. The film White on White won the main prize at this year’s Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.
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