Shooting took two months, beginning on 26 July, whem Nikolaev, whose previous credits include Kousek nebe (A Piece of Heaven, 2004) and Báječná léta pod psa (The Blissful Years of Lousy Living, 1997), suddenly replaced director Alice Nellis, who stepped down from the project after she was diagnosed with a serious neurological disease.
The world release of Lidice is now planned for June 2011.
"We have almost 55 hours of film material now, as the production used almost 80 different exteriors for the shooting, so the post-production will be extremely demanding," coproducer Ivana Rodingerová of Bioscop said.
Lidice has had an extraordinarily long pre-production, due to the complicated shooting plan and a budget of more than CZK 70 million (2.6 million Euros) for the World War II set. A record CZK 20 million (770,000 Euros), was provided by the Czech State Fund for Cinematography (www.mkcr.cz). The start of filming was delayed several times due to difficulties in financing the final part of the budget.
The film is co-produced by Polish producer Dariusz Jablonski and Apple Film (www.applefilm.pl). The town of Kladno, where part of the exteriors were filmed, also helped with the financing, providing CZK 150,000 (5,800 Euros). Czech Television (www.ceskatelevize.cz) is co-producing and the Czech Ministry of Defence (www.army.cz) is providing historical weapons and army materials. Several private companies also helped with the production.
Mexican cinematographer Antonio Riestra, Oscar nominiee for best cinematography for Amores Perros (2000) is the DoP. Riestra previously worked on the Czech thriller Normal: The Düsseldorf Ripper (2009, director Julius Ševčík, Bontonfilm, www.bontonfilm.cz).
The award winning screenplay by Zdeněk Mahler is based on the infamous massacre in the Czech village of Lidice in central Bohemia. Lidice was exterminated and burnt by Nazis in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in June 1942. However, Lidice is not a classic war movie, but a psychological drama based on the true story of a man who survived the massacre.
The cast includes Karel Roden, Ivan Trojan, Zuzana Bydžovská, Jan Budař and Václav Jiráček, who played the lead in Jánošík, the Polish/Slovak/Czech/Hungarian coproduction by directors Agniezska Holland and Kasia Adamek.
Production contact:
Producer: Adam Dvořák
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: (+420) 221 436 320
Cell: (+420) 608 979 718
Na Klikovce 7, 140 00, Prague 4
