Movie Description
WEEDS
| SYNOPSIS
Far, far away, endless fields overgrown with weeds stretch to infinity. A beautiful garden is hidden in the middle of them, and it is carefully looked after by the Gardener. Her endurance is put to the test when a severe storm breaks out and her garden is flooded with seeds of weeds. This innocent encounter slowly grows into a life-and-death struggle. The Gardener tries her best to defeat this elemental force, but her fear and her desire to resist the intruders at all costs puts her entire world at risk.
| TRAILER
| CREDITS
Script, Director, Art design, Animation – Pola Kazak
DoP – Jakub Lojda
Music – Sergey Cheremisinov
Sound design – Mirek Šmilauer (Polka)
Editing – Alisa Sheli
Voice – Zuzana Hykyšová-Petráňová
Colorgrading – Vojtech Štetka
VFX – Bohdan Buďárek, Petr Charvát / Tomáš Holub, Tomáš Hájek (HatoHoto)
Production – Marcela Vrátilová
Producers – Mária Môťovská, Jiří Pecinovský, Martin Vandas (MAUR film, CZ)
Coproducer – The Film Academy of Miroslav Ondricek in Pisek (CZ)
Animation technique – oil painting on glass
Length – 13 min. 42 sec.
Languague – no dialogue
Release – 2024
Financially supported by Czech Film Fund and FILMTALENT Zlín Endowment Fund.
| DOWNLOADS
Poster – Jpg
Presskit – Pdf
Visuals – Zip
| FOUR VOICES
The film is part of the FOUR VOICES, which is a continuation of the project Three Voices and once again brings together students from FAMU, UMPRUM, FMK UTB Zlín and FAMO Písek.
| GALLERY
| ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Director’s explanation
The idea for the film arose sometime in 2015, when the refugee crisis was at its peak. I felt compelled to comment on the topic. But while working on the film, I came to the conclusion that what I want to talk about is a much more basic and simple idea. The whole fear of refugees is essentially a fear of change, a fear of the unknown, a fear of losing what we know and understand.
Therefore, I conceived the film as an animated myth about chaos trying to break into the ordered and logical world of man and about the fact that the main danger is precisely this fear and overly impulsive actions as a result of it. The arrival of a new experience does not always mean disaster. There is no need to always defend it at all costs. The endless mixing of foreign-new and familiar-old is ultimately the only thing that can enrich and strengthen us.
There are three main forces in the film. Two of them are opposites – a chaotic field of thistles and an orderly garden. A key aspect of their differences is the color design and character of the animation – the field is constantly full of movement, while the garden, on the other hand, remains almost motionless.
The third and main character – the Gardener – binds the two opposites together. She brings into the fray her active approach of a thinking and decisive character, while the thistles and flowers only behave in accordance with their nature.
The Gardener tries to defy nature and create her artificial fenced world. She is determined to protect it and preserve it, but the laws of life are stronger than her. She thus develops from not accepting the thistles through hatred, horror and madness to reach humility in the face of life, and reconciliation.
The welcome that the unknown “stranger” receives from the Gardener allows this irritable-looking being to blossom and reveal its potential beauty. And thus start a beautiful evolution.
