Photo © Home Box Office (HBO)
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Today, the first episode of the Pustina miniseries starts on CT. The premiere in the “free” broadcast will take place today at 20:10. If you want a reminder of what this series is about, read my review from December eight years ago.
I recently finished watching the last episode of Pustina. Without the support of American producers, even the best directors could immediately give up, because their work would fall into the cinematic subpar. Ivan Zachariáš, however, managed to film a series under the auspices of HBO, which can be qualitatively equal to large American productions.
Of course, he wasn’t alone. His second co-creator was Alice Nellis, who together with him filmed a series that has no parallel in the Czech Republic. It is the best series of the last decade, behind which money can be seen, which was able to fulfill all the desires of the creators and fulfill their imaginations.
Of course, it wasn’t just about the direction, but also about the actors, who can bring reality to their characters. Ulice and other many hundreds of serials are not among the top of the acting art. This only earns the actors a pension.
Among the pinnacle of acting is making the characters really live, have memories, their feelings, and be able to change their lives in such a way that the fans of the movies/series are ecstatic to be living part of their series with them.
The story of the lost Míša Sikorová is exactly the series that gradually reveals the backstage of the mysterious village Pustiny, in which all the neighbors live together. They only know the top layer of people, but no one can see into their soul, which they gradually reveal during the series.
It’s not just a story about Misha and her disappearance, but it’s a story about how poor the Wasteland is. Each resident tries to support himself as best he can. Some legally, some illegally (drugs), everything is complicated by the proximity of the juvenile detention center, which is full of bribes, drugs and is full of personalities who are not far from crime.
If I take the main roles, the main characters will do the hardest work. The entire series is based on Jaroslav Dušek and Zuzana Stivínová. Their marriage is not perfect, but they will do everything they can to find their daughter. Eliška Křenková also managed the difficult role of Klára Sikorová. And many other actors who play the characters as if they lived in them. Playing her character was certainly easy for Eva Holubová. Jan Cina and debutant Oskar Hes were very surprised. The other actors also managed to put real life into their characters.
The entire series is not only about the actors. David Boulter’s music managed to add the right mood to the whole series, which supports the sense of hopelessness of the whole environment in the solitude that surrounds the mine.
Thanks to the script and the two directors, the whole series is really the right one for HBO. It certainly wouldn’t hurt if Czech TV broadcast it as well, it would then show that we can’t expect anything great from televisions that can be watched by everyone. All televisions, ČT, Nova and Prima, shoot their series only to make money. Wasteland is not about money, it’s about quality and supervision of actors who can act and don’t just act for money.
I’m glad that I don’t see Dušek, Stivínová and other actors in the series, in various endless series. It’s a big opportunity for them to reach out to European (maybe American) productions to get noticed.
Both Zachariaš and Nellis are among the best Czech directors, so a great future awaits them in various series (for HBO and for film). They made a big advertisement with Pustin, which all other directors can only watch from a distance.
Rating: 100%
