Restart/Restart (2005)

Thursday / 14th December 2006 / 20:00

Czech Republic, Finland / 2005 / 79 minutes / director: Julius Ševčík / screenplay: Ondřej Ládek, Julius Ševčík / cinematography: Kasimir Lehto / editing: Aleksi Raij / music: Filip Míšek / cast: Lenka Krobotová (Sylvie), Filip Čapka (Martin), Anna Polívková (Marie), Václav Jiráček (Robert), Hana Seidlová (mother) /

The new film by Julius Ševčík is a Czech-Finnish coproduction and deserves to be included into this series of the most interesting Czech debuts. Unfortunately the word "interesting" doesn't go hand in hand with - the best. Restart is Ševčík's graduating film on FAMU, the famous Prague film school. He made it with the help of the Axman Production - the young production company, and the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki. The film was shot on locations in Prague (e.g. in music clubs Roxy, Radost FX), while postproduction work (editing, sound, special effects) took place in Finland. Due to the low budget, Restart took 8 months only to be completed.

The film is worth attention due to it's visual approach and the quality of editing (the only nomination for the Czech Lion for Best editing). Unfortunately it wasn't as successful as the filmmakers expected, nor was it pronounced revolutionary - the major limitation being the screenplay, even though it was the second co-work of Ševčík and Lehák. The story of young, pretty and successful Sylva is relatively simple. The total length of the film could be much shorter. However, we can admire the work of camera and the editing. The filmmarkers didn't succeed to hold our interest with a story that was meant to be a breathtaking drama of a strong but fragile woman. The film has a good casting, making use of new actors. Lenka Krobotová, better known as a theatre actress in the Dejvické Theater, plays the character of Sylva very convincingly. And again, due to poor screenplay, she is more of a silly, bored, juvenile girl.

Restart is a best example of current trends that have entered Czech cinema in recent years- expressive music and original camera shots. Filip Míšek (member of the music group Khoiba) composed film music and added other songs from the best of electro music scene. Finnish cameraman Kasimir Lehto first shot on Super 16 mm format and finally transferred it to 35 mm, making the film look more attractive. But no matter the visual attractivity, the film somehow forgets to tell the one-day story and tends more to "show." Unfortunately, it is far from its model - Tom Tykwer's Lola Run.

As such, Restart is a faultless work of the Finnish part of the staff. But still it is the most interesting debut of 2005.
Ševčík has already prooved he knows how to make films. Let's hope that in the future he will show us that he has also something to say.

Petr Vlček