Figures Made of Sludge

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1987

Production year

1985—1987

Premiere

1 January 1988

Runtime

100 min

Category

povídkový film

Genre

short-story

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionlong

Original title

Figurky ze šmantů

Czech title

Figurky ze šmantů

English title

Figures Made of Sludge

Summary

In 1987, directors Martin Faltýn, Jan Kubišta and Radovan Urban took the opportunity to début together with this film offering three loosely connected storylines. The book of the same name by František Stavinoha determined the film’s location, namely Kladno and its mines. In Faltýn’s story, entitled Úraz (Injury, 1987), the young hero Ondřej (played by Ondřej Vetchý), who has failed to make it into the faculty of journalism, gets to know the joys and woes of work in the pit. In Příběhu ohnivé Toničky (Story about the Fiery Tonička, 1987), director Jan Kubišta tells the story of a coal tipper worker (played by Zuzana Bydžovská) who becomes pregnant by the amoral miner Placák. Finally director Radovan Urban recounts the fate of the chief engineer Tomanec (Eduard Cupák), who weighs up his life on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday. Narrative coherence is underscored by the fact that the leading characters reappear in each other’s stories.

Synopsis

Three short stories.

Crew and creators

Costume Designer

Marta Kaplerová

Production Manager

Eliška Nejedlá

Unit Production Manager

Ivan Helcl, Jana Koubová, Antonín Pražský

Unit Production Manager

Luboš Čížek, Gabriela Kerekešová

Cooperation

Miloš Schmiedberger (fotograf), Zdeněk Vávra (fotograf)

Production info

Original Title

Figurky ze šmantů

Czech Title

Figurky ze šmantů

English Title

Figures Made of Sludge

Category

povídkový film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

short-story

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1987

Production Year

1985—1987

Production specifications

literary Screenplay approved 4 July 1985
start of filming 11 November 1985
technical Screenplay approved 28 November 1985
end of filming 16 April 1987
projection approval 12 June 1987

Premiere

premiere 1 January 1988 /suitable for youths/

Creative Group

6. dramaturgicko-výrobní skupina Tvůrčí mládí, Jan Vild (vedoucí 6. dramaturgicko-výrobní skupiny Tvůrčí mládí), Oldřich Janota (šéfredaktor Hlavní redakce dramatických pořádů Československé televize Praha)

Technical info

Duration typology

feature film

Duration in minutes

100 min

Original length in metres

2 841 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm, 35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech