Karlovy Vary Sets Franz Kafka Retrospective For 58th Edition; Fest Will Screen Digitally Restored Version Of 1978 Czech Title ‘Shadows Of A Hot Summer’

Diana Lodderhose

23 April 2024 at 7:33 am·2-min read

This year’s edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is set to present a retrospective on Franz Kafka and his influence on cinema, dubbed The Wish To Be A Red Indian: Kafka and Cinema. It will examine how the influential Czech writer has impacted filmmakers from Orson Welles, Martin Scorsese, Ousmane Sembene, Jan Nemec and Steven Soderbergh.

This June will mark the centenary of the final moments of Kafka, who passed away at a sanatorium in the Austrian town of Kierling. KVIFF, which kicks off on June 28, will launch this strand in honor of the writer featuring films such as Soderberg’s noir mystery Kafka, Welles’ The Trial, Scorsese’s After Hours as well as Roman Polanski’s The Tenant among others.

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The festival will also be honoring casting director Francine Maisler, who has worked with directors such as Denis Villeneuve, Terrence Malick and Alejandro González Iñárritu and whose credits include The Revenant, The Big Short, Creed, As Good As It Gets, Little Women and both of the latest instalments of Dune.

Elsewhere, the festival has announced that it will present its President’s Award to Czech actor Ivan Trojan at this year’s closing ceremony. Trojan is one of the most frequently cast Czech actors in the film, television and theater spheres in the last 25 years, with credits including Seducer, In The Shadow, Charlatan and Agnieszka Holland’s Burning Bush.

KVIFF will also be premiering a digitally restored version of 1977 film Shadows of a Hot Summer, from Czech director Frantisek Vláćil, which first premiered at the festival in 1978 when it was awarded the Crystal Golden Globe for Best Film.

The film is set two years after World War II on an isolated farstead in the Beskid Mountains inhabited by Ondrej Baran and his family. Their quiet life is interrupted by a gang of Banderites who, desperate to escape across the border, are not afraid to use violence. They force the farmer, his wife and a doctor to look after one of their injured comrades. Ondrej must engage in a deadly game in which he tries to protect his family while passively resisting evil.

The 58^th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival takes place June 28 – July 6, 2024.

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