Homies is a bromance on the border between documentary and fiction. It tells the story of two friends, director Jan Foukal and musician Albert Romanutti, who are stuck together in a one-bedroom Prague apartment during the lockdown. Shot with a hand camera, the reality of the (non)passing time of the pandemic slowly reveals itself. Ordinary events gradually transform the apartment into an autonomous world of imagination accompanied by music. The film serves as a manifesto of creation as a mental escape from a closed world, while the emerging friendship opens up more general questions about the human need for social interaction.

“We decided to buy a camera from the state COVID-19 support and spend time shooting a film together. The most important thing was the very fact of making that decision,” Jan Foukal told FNE.

“The production was invited to the project when over 300 hours had already been recorded. It seemed to us that there was so much openness, fragility and joy in that raw material! We needed to create something from that volume that we could share and bring the joy of creation to the audience as well. Editor Josef Krajbich had a huge creative share in the final form. It was very refreshing how both Jan and Albert were deeply immersed in the whole finishing process,” added Silvie Michajlová, who is producing through Film Kolektiv.

Ondřej Zima is coproducing through Czech evolution films. Jan Foukal is also coproducing.

Filming took place from the end of 2020 to May 2021. During 2022 there were only several shooting days that served for a music video for the song Gejzír, used in the final credits of the film. The entire music album was released on the day of the world premiere in Jihlava, 27 October 2022.

Homies was supported by the Czech Film Fund through the COVID-19 support call. The budget was not disclosed.

Foukal’s first documentary, the road film Amerika (2015), also premiered at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.