2024-08-14 00:10:37
The pig snorts in the sty, the guys in the yard look almost religiously at the approaching car. Appropriately pompous, militantly religious music sounds like a king or a pope about to arrive. In the opening of the new Czech film Mord, which began screening in cinemas this week after its premiere at the Karlovy Vary festival, an essential person indeed approaches the cottage: the butcher.
The film Mord has been showing in Czech cinemas since last Thursday. | Video: CinemArt
The expected feature debut of screenwriter and director Adam Martinec works not only with the tradition of the female killer, but also echoes of old Czech bittersweet comedies.
Thirty-four-year-old Martinec, a native of Krnov, was already considered a unique phenomenon at Prague’s FAMU since his short film Sugar and Salt from 2018. The picture, in which a meeting with beer and a roast turned into a melancholy boy’s contemplation of old age and mortality, relied on non-actors, comedic timing, capturing an authentic environment. Rather than current trends, Martinec followed the tradition of the Czechoslovak new wave or Jaroslav Papoušek’s comedy. He also continues this with the film Mord.
Karel Martinec is Karel as Karel in the picture from Mord. | Photo: CinemArt
Martinec once again entrusted the role of the four-generation staff of the cottage, where the 150-kilogram pimp Ferda is soon to be slaughtered, mostly to non-actors, perhaps with the exception of Albert Čuba. While the focus of the plot of Sugar and Salt was the absence of a butcher to “peck” the lamb, this time the butcher is present. But he’s short of dry rounds for the stun gun. And that could be a problem, as it sounds in the story about the badly hit pig that broke both of the butcher’s legs. Mord is full of similar speeches and believable, casually told stories.
This time, however, Zabijačka – similar to Tomáš Pavlíček’s comedy Cottage for sale – is primarily a way to fit a large number of characters into a small space and present various partner, family and neighborhood frictions.
How to maintain a family
Despite the jokes, Martinec creates a bitter, sad atmosphere when, under the pressure of the situation and the increasing amount of alcohol, the long-standing partnership conflict comes to the surface. And again, the director is strong not only in the natural management of non-actors, but also in how to break down certain stereotypes.
In Mord mostly non-actors act. | Photo: CinemArt
The killer in the film is not a celebration of dying traditions, on the contrary, it is a problematic matter not only for the grumpy old neighbor who wants to betray the actors, but actually also for the grandmother and grandfather, for whom the shack was more of a burden. And this is supposed to be the last chun to be slaughtered.
In a similar way, Martinec can portray, for example, the character of a vegetarian policeman who has had a stomach ache from food and breakfast since childhood and cannot eat it without it being a joke or a caricature.
Mord may not seem to have much more to say on the feature screen than Martinc’s short films. Again, it tells about the fragility and insecurities behind strong boyish gestures. This time, however, he also draws women into the male collective and touches, for example, on how old village hierarchies are changing.
The issue is not whether pig slaughter can be maintained despite European Union regulations. There’s nothing to do when Grandpa Karel slips with a bucket of blood – and the existence of the intestines is fundamentally threatened. Mord is more about how to keep a family together, how to break out of decades or generations of roles and habits. At these moments, the film occasionally slips into predictable patterns, but that can also be its strength.
Martinec actually wants to reconcile the generations, not only of his heroes, but also of the audience. Mord can easily become a popular village comedy, which is also enthusiastically applauded by the art audience. He says that being nostalgic, bittersweet and conciliatory doesn’t always have to be bad – despite the tradition of domestic filmmaking. That it is possible to be popular and at the same time not pander to the most average taste.
Film
Murder
Screenplay and direction: Adam Martinec
Cinemart, in cinemas from August 8.