If you haven’t seen it yet recovery point, you missed out on quite possibly the best Czech sci-fi film ever. Which isn’t necessarily a very competitive environment, but know that last year’s film is a very successful domestic cyberpunk crime film. However, you can correct your mistake online starting this Wednesday. Or to remember the “Czech Blade Runner”.
Recovery point it’s on Netflix now. A film has arrived on the streaming service that takes you to Prague in the year 2041. Next to the old houses, there are futuristic blocks of flats rising to the sky, and a sharp eye will also spot the Kaplické Library. However, the biggest change was not the panorama of the hundred-spired city, but human destinies. Every person now has the right to a fully lived life – and if he dies prematurely of an unnatural death, technology can restore him from the backup consciousness.
That is, at least in the event that the deceased managed to create a title recovery point before death. You can probably imagine that investigating a murder in such a world will not look like a typical detective story. In the film directed by Robert Hloz, the investigator Em Trochinovská, played by Andrea Mohylová, begins to unravel the unusual plot, which involves giant corporations, conspiracies, and ethical and technological complications. Also playing are Matěj Hádek, Karel Dobrý or Václav Neužil.
In the best moments Recovery point reminds even the most classical cyberpunk classics Blade Runneraespecially its newer processing 2049. Both in atmosphere and visually. Mostly believable technology naturally intertwines with the everyday lives of the characters, the futuristic and polished in the film mixes with the shabby and outdated.
The scenario and the story do not deviate from the genre’s well-trodden tracks, but the fact that a functioning science fiction was created in the Czech Republic is simply a phenomenon. About qualities Recovery point 115 thousand people were convinced in domestic cinemas, which meant sales of around 20 million crowns. However, the film’s budget was twice as high, so the sale of the rights to Netflix is an attempt to improve the financial results of the film.
Except Recovery point are also coming to Netflix Brethren, a film about the Mašín family persecuted by the communists and their struggle against the totalitarian regime. It was supposed to appear on the streaming platform now, but its online premiere was postponed by a week to Wednesday, January 31. Film directed by Tomáš Mašín, whose protagonists are distantly related, by the way Recovery point in some ways it resembles you. And not only with a bunch of nominations for the Czech Lions (fifteen pro Brotherseight for Recovery point) or a solid budget of 60 million crowns.
Of course not the subject matter, a cyberpunk detective story and a historical action thriller don’t have much in common. Nevertheless, both films are representatives of extremely competently shot films by Czech filmmakers that do not suffer from cheapness or a lack of self-confidence. And which does not need to be ashamed even compared to foreign genre competition. Another similar recent case, drama Dawn with the excellent Eliška Křenková in the lead role, you can even watch it on Netflix.
