This year, Another View will unusually include a Czech film, The Ferrari Dino Girl, by Jan Němec. This exceptional formal experiment by a living legend of Czech film returns to the year 1968 and follows its three protagonists on a journey from Soviet-occupied Prague to the West. Němec drew on his own experiences - a trip he took in August 1968 to give Western television unique footage from the streets of occupied Prague. According to Eva Zaoralová, The Ferrari Dino Girl corresponds to the spirit of Another View perfectly. "The movie is an independent production and the filmmaker's view of the chosen theme is markedly his own, original, completely outside of all cinematographic trends."
Movies in the Another View section come from exotic locales as well. Indonesia's Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly places an ostracized Indonesian man of Chinese origin at the center of a simple story, and touches on questions of homosexuality and humiliation. Another View will also offer an unostentatious debut entitled Zero Bridge. "The director, using nonactors to achieve maximum authenticity, presents the true face of contemporary Kashmir," comments programmer Lenka Tyrpáková on the story of two young people longing for a better life.
Despite the fact that Another View comprises films selected from the hundreds of DVDs sent to the Prague offices of the KV IFF, it will also include noteworthy movies from top festivals. The Turkish film My Only Sunshine scored points at the Berlinale with its outsider story of a heroine living in a forgotten quarter of Istanbul. Mexico's Parque vía tells of an agoraphobic man guarding an abandoned building; the film won a number of international awards, including the Golden Leopard at Locarno. The Chilean film The Maid won two awards at Sundance.
This year, Another View will offer several films which aspire to become festival hits. Norway's North, which garnered two awards at the Berlinale, has the thumbs-up from festival program director Julietta Sichel: "This wonderful, upbeat off-road movie interested us even as a script.... It involves a lone man's trek on a snowmobile, and provides interesting information, for example a cheap way to consume alcohol with the help of the tampon taped to your head. It has a good chance of becoming the audience hit of the section." Viewers may also root for A Matter of Size, a sophisticated comedy about four overweight Israelis who give up dieting and decide to become sumo wrestlers.
The British film Bronson, inspired by actual events, tells of a man who spent over 30 years behind bars and gained fame by insulting his guards. "It's one of this year's most talked-about movies, and was immediately nicknamed A Clockwork Orange for the 21st century," says programmer Karel Och, who considers Bronson the best discovery of the 2009 Sundance festival. "The soundtrack, which includes bits from Richard Wagner and the Pet Shop Boys, complements an original and uncompromising explosion of style, which surprises with every shot." The movie promises to be a singular viewing experience.
