15-07-2009

Production: Protector opening set for September 22

By Irena Zemanová

    Protector, director Marek Najbrt's big-budget war psychothriller, will have its official world release on September 22 in Prague.

    Two days later, September 24, Protector (www.protektor-film.cz) will enter official Czech distribution, acording to distributor Falcon (www.falcon.cz). Previously, September 3 was marked as the date of the world release.

    Najbrt spent more than three years with preparing the movie. The final budget of Protector is almost CZK 70 million ( 2.7 million Euros).

    The drama of a Jewish actress, Hana, and her husband, radio reporter Emil Vrbata, who become a Nazi collaborator in Prague, also received a record grant of 630,000 Euros from the Czech state fund for support and development of Czech cinematography. "This amount helped us a lot to complete the large-scale budget," said producer Pavel Strnad, head of production company Negativ (www.negativ.cz)

    Najbrt started the 45-day shoot of the war psycho-thriller in early September 2008, finishing on November 11, 2008. "We are not describing the history of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Protector is a story of two lovers, which suddenly becomes a drama. A love story changes into a story of self-destruction," Najbrt said. He enlisted his brother, acclaimed Czech designer Aleš Najbrt, to create the film's poster.

    "We shot the movie in various parts of Prague, but sometimes it was hard to find the right location for the shooting of a story set in early 1940s," said Benjamin Tucek, who co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Geisler. According to him, the final version of the movie combines authentic Prague downtown exteriors with locations built at Barrandov studios.

    Among the film's major co-producers are Czech television (www.ceskatelevize.cz), HBO (www.hbo.cz), and companies Soundsquare studio (www.soundsquare.cz) and UPP (www.upp.cz).

    Contacts:

    Negativ Film Production

    Ostrovní 30
    110 00 Praha 1
    Czech Republic

    tel.: +420 224 933 755
    fax: +420 224 933 472
    e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
    web: www.negativ.cz