The AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center will screen Jan Sverak's new film Kooky, an animated film that reveals the story of a six-year-old asthmatic boy whose parents force him to throw away his favorite toy, an old teddy bear named Kooky. The film received three Czech Lions for Best Film Editing, Sound, and Music, as well as the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film is in English.

Location:

AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Admission is free, no reservation required.

October 22, 2011, at 11 am
Kooky (Kuky se vraci)
DIR: Jan Sverak, 2010, 93 min., in English, color

Film website: www.kukysevraci.cz/en/  (English Version)
 

Synopsis: Six-year-old Ondra has a favorite stuffed animal named Kooky. His mother has just thrown him in the trash, not because she is mean, but because Kooky’s stuffing is falling out and has a bad effect on Ondra’s asthma. Before he falls asleep, Ondra imagines Kooky’s determination to come back home and everything he has to do to get there. In the boy´s fantasy, the bear gets lost in a forest, occupied by strange animals and things which he never saw or heard of before while living on the toy shelf in Ondra’s room. The naïve child’s imagination, resting on pre-school knowledge and underpinned by nostalgia for a beloved toy, weaves a touching and exciting story.           

NOTE: This animated film, directed by Jan Sverak, is a poetic family journey in which the main characters are the heroes of a child’s fantasy. The film combines stop motion, live action, and puppet animation and serves as the most technically complicated film done by Sverak.

The planned 35 days of the filmmaking turned into 100 days and the film was shot in several phases and locations. The most challenging was the filming of the animals, which were filmed for several hours until they made the desired movement. Especially the squirrels, with which the cameraman had to be alone in the studio, lost their timidity after six hours. The film contains three times more visual effects than Dark Blue World, the most expensive Czech film up to that point. The toy imitation of the hero Kooky became a bestseller in the Czech Republic.

The screening is a part of the Kids Euro Festival: www.kidseurofestival.org  
and the Mutual Inspirations Festival 2011 — Antonin Dvorak:

www.mutualinspirations.org

Festival trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDmTxlZ_9-outube.com/watch?v=UDmTxlZ_9-o
Become a FACEBOOK FAN!

BE INSPIRED,
Mary E. Fetzko
Cultural Section
202/274-9105
maryfetzko@mutualinspirations.org


THE FESTIVAL 
http://www.mutualinspirations.org/

The Mutual Inspirations Festival 2011 – Antonin Dvorak runs from September 8, 2011, commemorating the 170th anniversary of the birth of the composer, and ends on October 28, 2011, Czech National Day. The festival features more than 500 local and international artists, 30 concerts and events, and a dozen prestigious venues in the Washington, DC, community. The festival is spearheaded by the Embassy of the Czech Republic, under the patronage of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg, focusing on the mutual inspirations between Czech and American cultures.