FNE at Art Film Fest: Bells of Happiness

13-06-2012

FNE at Art Film Fest: Bells of Happiness

By Iulia Blaga

BRATISLAVA: At the heart of Bells of Happiness, a 70 minute documentary directed by Jana Bucka and Marek Sulik, are Mariena and Roman, two Roma cousins connected by their admiration for pop singers Karel Gott and Dara Rolins.

The cousins make a music video of themselves singing the stars' joint hit Zvonky Štěstí/Bells of Joy and send them the DVD. Bučka and Šulik are also credited as scriptwriters. This is their second film inspired by the Roma people, following Cigarettes and Songs/Cigarety a pesničky.

"Some stories we encountered during this project were really very interesting, and it seemed to us that it would have been a great pity not to deal with them in any way anymore. We began to think about a film with the working title Stories of Fear. The primal question which we asked ourselves and on which this film should have been based was what prevents Roma from getting out of the vicious circle of poor life, lack of education, race prejudices etc. And what would they need to break this circle," Šulik said in an interview.

Shooting started at the beginning of September 2011 and wrapped in October 2011 after 18 days of shooting. The budget was approximately 80,000 Euro, Šulik told FNE. The project received a development grant, a production grant and a grant for participation at IDF's Ex Oriente workshop (http://www.dokweb.net/en/ex-oriente-film/) from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund (www.avf.sk). All in all, the support from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund was around 28,000 Euro, Šulik told FNE.

Zvonky Štěstí/Bells of Joy was produced by OZ Žudro (www.zudro.sk), in coproduction with Punkchart films and Radio and Television Slovakia/Rozhlas a televizia Slovenska (www.rtvs.sk).

The Slovak premiere of the film will be during Art Film Fest in the Slovak Season section (16-23 June 2012 (www.artfilmfest.sk)., and the international premiere will be at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival (www.kviff.com). Distribution will begin in the summer, and the film will hit the Slovak cinemas in autumn 2012, Šulik told FNE.

Production Information

OZ Žudro

Dražická 20, 841 01

Bratislava, Slovakia

Phone: +421 915 955 017

www.zudro.sk

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Jana Belišová: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Punkchart films s. r. o.

Špitálska 20

Bratislava - Staré Mesto

811 08, Slovakia