In Karlovy Vary Film Festival competition entry We Have Never Been Modern, Czech director Matej Chlupacek takes on both the dangers of Utopian bubbles and the power of unbending faith in traditional gender concepts.
The story, set in a Slovak company town built by a visionary industrialist, takes place on the eve of World War II, as a murder mystery threatens to upset the idealized community. The factory directors wife Helena, played by Eliska Krenkova, is an aspiring doctor who is soon to give birth. But her rosy future is suddenly darkened by the discovery of the body of a newborn intersex baby in the factorys courtyard.
All these elements might seem like a heavy burden for a young indie filmmaker who eschewed film school and whose last effort at making a feature was a decade ago, Touchless made when he was a 17-year-old debut writer-director.
But Chlupacek has hardly been hiding out working on screenplay drafts while doing odd jobs since then. Already an experienced multi-platform producer, he has been busy with Czech TV and streaming shows for years and is already in negotiations with a major platform for more.
His credits include the Czech version of international cable franchise In Treatment, and the 2020 crime thriller Rats, among other projects.
So Chlupaceks bold choices in We Have Never Been Modern and his particular take on a historical what-if story are not as surprising as they might seem. The filmmaker clearly knows what he wants to do and how.
And Chlupaceks approach to creating the worlds appearance is typical of his unconventional work. We shot on 35 and used miniatures, he says. The distinctive look of the setting, inspired by real-life Czech footwear manufacturing mogul Tomas Bata and his modernist factory town built in Zlin during the pre-war years, was achieved after extensive testing with in-camera effects, he says.
We are creating a city that doesnt exist, Chlupacek explains. A good part of the magic is handmade but VFX is another essential component, he says, adding, We have an amazing colorist. Between that expertise and the work of production designer Henrich Boraros, We Have Never Been Modern indeed achieves a look and feel that are remarkable.
With miniatures built on a 1:7 scale, Chlupacek was inspired by the once-common techniques of George Lucas Industrial Light Magic on Star Wars or vintage Czech sci-fi master Karel Zeman. The miniatures were blended into set pieces built to human scale for actors to stand on and touch. The team experimented with 3D rendering and other CGI techniques but, says the director, that method never translated somehow to what I wanted.
The filmmakers also did several test screenings, too a phenomenon not yet common in the Czech Republic to be sure everything worked visually with audiences, Chlupacek says.
In addition, the project took four years to develop and cost nearly $3.7 million, a figure thats also well beyond the norm for an independent feature in this territory.
Cinematographer Martin Douba contributed another level to the visuals, says the director, in a process he describes as highly collaborative.
We intended to do a modern kind of historical film so we went with the approach of handheld camera so it would look like an indie film.
As for the fraught period that the film takes place in, Chlupacek says he saw a parallel between modern times, in which its too easy to shut out danger signs from outside our comfortable homes, and those of Czechoslovakias First Republic.
I think its very similar to the days were living in now, having these amazing lives, were not bothered directly by anything, and its really rosy. In 1937 it was the same they didnt know something tragic was coming. Youre watching someone who may not exist in the next year. Or theyll have to change their way of living completely. That was something that really interested me.
The first sign of cracks in the ideal life come with the discovery of the murdered infant at the factory and the childs intersex anatomy signals a path along storylines that are darker still.
The intersex subject is very strong in the film, says Chlupacek, but it also represents something new that comes into the life of people who live according to their strict rules.
Bucking the rules is something thats always interested this filmmaker, he says, and a route he plans to continue to explore.
I always wanted to provoke people, he admits. I always wanted to bring something thats not theirs, and put it on the table and see how they react. And this amazing script by Miro Sifra reflected, I felt for the first time, something that I wanted to do.