SYNOPSIS
EMPTIES comes from director Jan Svěrák and his father, screenwriter/actor Zdeněk Svěrák, and belongs to a sequence of films following one man’s life through the century. It began with the Academy Award-nominated ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, exploring childhood, continued into adulthood with the Academy Award-winning KOLYA, and reaches later life here with EMPTIES, a comic love story about a man facing old age. Joseph teaches literature in a secondary school in Prague. One day he is forced into retirement but he refuses to take it lying down. He finds work at the bottle-return counter in a supermarket and discovers a new community who begin to rely on him. Once more his life has meaning, but Joseph neglects his wife, who feels she’s losing him. EMPTIES is a funny, touching story of love in old age, which broke Czech box office records upon release, becoming the first film ever – Czech or Hollywood blockbuster – to gross US$4 million in the Czech Republic in six weeks on release.
CREDITS
Director: Jan Svěrák
Writer: Zdeněk Svěrák
Producers: Eric Abraham & Jan Svěrák
Principal Cast: Zdeněk Svěrák, Daniela Kolářová, Tatiana Vilhelmová, Jiří Macháček
Original title: Vratné lahve
AWARDS
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2007 – Winner, Special Jury Mention for the Screenplay: Zdeněk Svěrák
Ljubljana International Film Festival 2007 – Winner, Audience Award
Festroia International Film Festival 2008 – Winner, Golden Dolphin for Best Film
PRESS
“Czech helmer Jan Svěrák has set a Czech opening weekend record…Critical acclaim has matched the numbers, with many calling the film the most emotionally mature script to come out of Svěrák and his father’s long professional relationship”
VARIETY
“A fantastically witty, clever and truthful comedy about life, love, marriage and parenthood.”
PRAVO
