The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street / Vlk z Královských Vinohrad
Directed by Jan Němec, 2016, 68 min., Czech with English subtitles
 
“Provocative to the last, [director Jan Němec]  revisits key moments from his life with a dash of bravado and an urge to set down his memories from the front line of history.”~Allan Hunter, SCREENDAILY

“Our life zips by faster than our recollections of it,” stated internationally celebrated Czech director Jan Němec (1936–2016). In his last film, Němec loosely adapts his collection of short, real-life stories spanning the 60s to the present, experienced through the director’s alter ego John Jan, played by Jiří Mádl and Karel Roden in his direct-to-camera narratives about fame, glory, and women. The film journeys back to the controversial 1968 Cannes Film Festival, the Soviet tanks rolling into Prague, and his exile and return. As Němec noted himself, “the film has ‘wolf’ in its title, a feral, cunning, uncontrollable creature. A wolf in sheep’s clothing and vice versa. You’ll see where it all happened. You’ll get the authentic dialogues, the original commentaries, genuine archive footage, and fake stuff as well. Everything in the film really did happen, and John Jan really experienced it. Although, it has to be said, he occasionally inflated things a little.”  The film was nominated for Best Film at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2016. Posthumously, director Jan Nemec won Special Mention at the festival for the film.
 
Director Jan Němec died on the eve of the last day of shooting. The final touches were carried out by the assistant director Tomáš Klein, creative producer Jakub Felcman and editor Josef Krajbich, supported by Němec’s wife, Iva Ruzseláková. 
 
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR         
Jan Němec (1936–2016, Prague), was a Czech director, producer and professor at the Film and Television Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). One of the leading figures of the Czechoslovak New Wave, he debuted his film career with Diamonds of the Night (1964). In the same decade, he created another of his masterpieces, A Report On The Party And The Guests (1966), which had the British magazine Films and Filming hailing him as one of the year’s top five directors. He was definitively banned from making films after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, which became the subject of his internationally acclaimed documentary Oratorio for Prague (1968). From 1974 to 1989, he lived and worked in exile and, after his return home, he shot the majority of his films via his own company, Jan Němec – Film, established together with Iva Ruszeláková, whom he later married. ~Karel Och, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (kviff.com)

TRAILER:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrgUjohF94o

More about the film:
http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-wolf-from-royal-vineyard-street-karlovy-vary-review/5106405.article

EVENT DETAILS:

Date: August 9, at 8 pm

Location: Avalon Theater
5612 Connecticut Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20015

ABOUT THE LIONS OF CZECH FILM SERIES:
This marks the 11th year of collaboration with the Avalon Theatre to present the Lions of Czech Film Series. This film series gives the Washington, DC, community an opportunity to view Czech films that are popular hits in Europe and have received numerous honors and awards at film festivals. Most of the films have received the prestigious Czech Lion Award, the Czech equivalent of an Academy Award. The Lions of Czech Film Series offers an invaluable opportunity to see the best of Czech cinema in the nation’s capital.

Tickets are available at the door or online at http://www.theavalon.org/films/wolf-royal-vineyard-street/
Location: Avalon Theatre, 5612 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC