Next to Home Care, another Czech film in ZFF’s program, Family Film is an entertaining combination of elegantly dark, unpredictable black comedy and family drama in which the standard home-alone situation turns into a worst-case scenario for each of the characters, including the family pet.
Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu partially got his inspiration from a short news story about a dog who managed to survive for several weeks on a deserted island after a shipwreck. The idea of the dog Robinson consumed him completely – while filming a story about a wealthy couple from Prague who go on a cruise in the Indian Ocean and their two children are left in the meantime in Prague on their own, he introduced a whole new storyline about a dog fighting for survival and at the same time becoming the family’s symbol, the catalyst of their problems and perhaps the only one capable of rejoining the decaying family.
Before studying directing at the FAMU academy in Prague, Olmo Omerzu worked as a comic book artist and a member of the editorial board at the Slovenian magazine Stripburger. His graduation work and debut feature A Night Too Young, after a successful premiere in the Forum section at the 62nd Berlinale, was invited to many international festivals, winning several awards.
Family Film screens in Zagreb Film Festival’s main program in three slots, at Europa and Tuškanac cinemas. Check out our schedule for more details.