Variety: “Debuting helmer Tereza Nvotová is an extremely talented filmmaker, sensitive to how her traumatized protagonist is portrayed. “Filthy” shows off Nvotová’s strong visual acumen.”
Seventeen-year-old Lena’s world come crashing down when she is raped by her teacher. Sent to hospital, Lena struggles to deal with her trauma through treatment in a conservative psychiatric bureaucracy. Her only chance is realizing that she is not the one who deserves punishment.
DIRECTED BY Tereza Nvotova
WRITTEN BY Barbora Namerova, Tereza Nvotova
PRODUCED BY Bfilm, Moloko film, FAMU
CO-PRODUCED BY HBO Europe
WOLRD SALES Film Republic
Supported by AVF and CFF.
The world premiere of this film was held in January 2017 at 46th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Watch online in USA on GALERIE: Ed Lachman’s curated list
NOTES FROM ED LACHMAN:
The director immediately draws you into a story that asks you to put the pieces together throughout the film. It’s a story about a 17-year-old girl whose potential for love and dreams is violated by sexual assault. The pain becomes reinforced and internalized as our protagonist, Lena, navigates her disengaged family, broken medical community and society. By the end of the film, there is hope that perhaps she finds a future where she can control her own life.
Director Tereza Nvotová uses documentary observation for fictional storytelling. Scriptwriter Barbora Namerova’s approach to morally contentious issues and how they are depicted offers insight into the problems a rape victim faces in society. The subtlety and vulnerable performance of actor Dominika Morávková as a middle-class, ordinary high school girl contribute to this extraordinary, powerful film.
“While pretty standard in its execution, featuring a straightforward narrative, clean cinematography, classical but engagingly dynamic editing, and a valuable dash of naturalism with the psychiatric patients played by actual teenagers living in such institutions, Filthy provides an inventive shortcut to a refreshing angle of looking at the relation between family and other staples of society, and rape. It is an interesting device that the first-time director pulls off with skill and surprising confidence.”
Golden Lynx for Best Fiction Feature Film – FEST – New Directors New Films 2017, Espinho, Portugal
Meeting Point Best Feature Award – 62nd Semana International de Cine, Valladolid, Spain
Best Film – Czech Critics’ Awards 2017, Czech Republic
Innogy Award for the Discovery of the Year – Czech Critics’ Awards 2017, Czech Republic
The Best Fiction Feature Film – 14th Neisse Film Festival, Germany
Blue Angel for Best Female Performance – 25th Art Film Fest, Košice, Slovakia
Wiesbaden Youth Film Competition Award for young talent – Exground Film Festival 30, Wiesbaden, Germany
Audience Award – Exground Film Festival 30, Wiesbaden, Germany
Audience Award JOJ Cinema for Best European Film – 25th Art Film Fest, Košice, Slovakia
AFCA Award for the Best Feature Film – Czech and Slovak Film Festival 2017, Australia
Best Fiction Film – Famufest 2017, Prague, Czech Republic
Best Cinematography – Famufest 2017, Prague, Czech Republic
Best Realized Screenplay – Famufest 2017, Prague, Czech Republic
Award of the Tatra banka Foundation for Art – Young Talent in the category Film and TV, Slovakia
52th Karlove Vary International Film Festival 2017, Czech Republic
FEST – New Directors New Films 2017, Espinho, Portugal
39th Cairo International Film Festival 2017, Cairo, Egypt
21st Black Nights Film Festival 2017, Tallinn, Estonia
Exground Film Festival 30, Wiesbaden, Germany
62nd Semana International de Cine – Valladolid International Film Festival, Valladolid, Spain
15th Rome film festival – Alice Nella Cittá – Rome, Italy
24th Febiofest – International Film Festival Prague 2017, Czech Republic
International Festival of Independent Cinema OffCamera Krakow 2017, Poland
22nd International Film Festival Vilnius 2017, Lithuania
16th Transilvania International Film Festival, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
15th Chennai International Film Festival, Chennai, India
Valetta Film Festival 2017, Valetta, Malta
19th International Film Festival Film by the Sea, Vlissingen, The Netherlands
25th Art Film Fest, Košice, Slovakia
GoEast Wiesbaden 2017, Germany
Buster Copenhagen International Film Festival for Children and Youth 2017, Copenhagen, Denmark
Czech and Slovak Film Festival 2017, Melbourne, Cannbera, Australia
14th Neisse Film Festival, Germany
30th Finále Plzeň 2017, Czech Republic
10th Central and Eastern European Film Festival Cineast, Luxembourg, Luxemburg
Cinema City Film Festival 2017, Novi Sad, Serbia
57th Zlin Film Festival, Zlin, Czech Republic
Sokołowsko Film Festival 2017, Poland
Famufest Inferno 2017, Prague, Czech Republic
35th International Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino!, Poznań, Poland