Česky
How do you like the Rehabilitation Hospital Beroun and how did you like filming here?
I think the Beroun Rehabilitation Centre is on a high European level. There are many excellent specialists, doctors and nurses working here and it is amazing that the owner, Mr. Sotirios Zavalianis, is still investing money in its modernisation and the quality of professional medical care. But most importantly, for me as a filmmaker, it is a place where there are very friendly people who were very accommodating for the needs of our filming, one passage of which concerned an operation in the operating theatre.
You are known to prepare thoroughly for every shoot and consult each scene. Was that the case here as well? What and with whom did you consult?
I consulted the whole scene of the operation in the operating theatre and the important details mainly with my expert advisor and your anaesthesiologist Martin Kral, whom the nurses call "Kralíček", and the station nurse Alenka Zuskova, who treated us like her own mother. Both of them helped me a lot to make the whole situation believable and I thank the management of your hospital very much for the opportunity to film with you.
Can you tell us a little about the series you filmed here?
Our film is called The Devil's Sleigh and it is a psychological thriller starring Jiří Schmitzer, Igor Bareš, Zdeněk Vencl and the young actress Natalia Řehořová. It is the story of one ambulance trip to a strange patient. It should be a series of solitary stories on the border of the psycho thriller genre. The stories will not build on each other in either characters or plot. Each episode is a different story. The individual episodes will be linked by genre, style, atmosphere and psychological resolution of situations. The episodes will also contain elements of black humour. The visual and musical aspects of the project are also important. We want to differentiate ourselves from the current mass television production in the quality of the processing and the detailed thought of the content of each episode. I'm a detail-oriented person and I hope the audience will appreciate that. I look forward to their reactions.
Do you have any time to relax?
I like to relax in our forest in Jíloviště. I recently bought a nice pair of blue trail shoes, new running shoes and a waterproof red jacket, so I have to run to make the most of these gifts. But in the winter I'll probably go to the sauna and I'd love to get a massage. I'm also comfortable behind the wheel of my car and when it snows, I snowboard. I'm definitely an advocate of active relaxation and exercise, not lying on a couch or a deck chair by the sea. We need to oxygenate the blood, right?
Surely there's a lot of film work going on right now, so doesn't relaxation have to go by the wayside a bit?
Yes, there are several parts to the film. Writing - literary preparation, finding locations, actors, crew, consulting with experts, preparing the shooting schedule, then there is the actual shooting. And now I'm facing the last and equally challenging part of the production of the film, which is finishing. I have to edit the film, sound design it, color it, mix the sound and make the tricks. So the work until the end of the year is too much.
