About film
produced by Bionaut Films / in co-production with Czech Television / with the support of The State Fund of the Czech Republic for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography / in cooperation with ACE Cinedigi UPP SoundSquare Black Cut general partner Baťa partner Tesco
story, screenplay, art design, direction Maria Procházková / producer Vratislav Šlajer / cinematography Martin Štěpánek / set designer Jan Novotný / music Jan P. Muchow / editing Marek Opatrný / sound design Marek Hart
starring Terezka Dorotka Dědková / mom Jitka Čvančarová / dad Pavel Řezníček / Patrik Martin Hofmann / granny Jana Krausová / Šimon Matouš Kratina / Gábinka Marie Boková / colleague Marek Taclík / teacher Eva Leimbergerová
A family film, a children’s horror movie, a mature romance and a fairytale about Little Red Riding Hood. Though at first sight these genres are wildly divergent, they top off Maria Procházková’s visually innovative Who’s Afraid of the Wolf fantastically. In it, the director of Shark in the Head returns to the poetics of her successful graduate short film Příušnice.
The main hero of the story is named Terezka. She loves the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, she has caring parents and a best friend from nursery named Šimon. She could easily live happily like this until the end of her days... if this weren’t reality. Suddenly the earth starts to slip from beneath Terezka’s feet, her mother and eventually all the grown-ups she knows start acting strangely, and the only one who is able to give her counsel is her friend Šimon. He’s clear on everything. Terezka’s mother has been switched with an alien being. All it needs is a single prick with a fork, a wound that will heal over immediately, and the proof will be there for all to see. Terezka thus has a big adventure ahead of her. In trying to save her real mother, she will face a much more dangerous and perhaps hungry wolf.
More grown up audiences will probably interpret the story differently. For them it will be a classic love triangle between a woman and two men, one of whom constitutes the certainty and safety of home and the other the magic of distance and unfulfilled ambition. In the middle of this triangle is a confused little child with lots of questions that she doesn’t get any answers to.
“The story of 5-year-old Terezka is closely linked to her favourite fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, which is essentially a horror story. A fascinating aspect is the childish fascination with fear, the constant insistence on and repetition of a scary fairytale, even though it enters into the girl’s dreams. Terezka wants a good-night story every evening, and always the same one. The fairytale should be a “red thread” weaving together the entire story and creating a parallel of sorts, because like the story itself it begins romantically, goes through drama and horror and leads to a happy end,” says director Maria Procházková. Her visual treatment of the film belies her “artistic origins”, supplementing the dramatic film with drawings and animations that add an attractive face to the nonetheless interesting story.
And who is the film intended for? “It’s a film for adults that they can watch with children. The film deals with serious family matters, but is told from the point of view of a six-year-old girl. This makes it understandable and entertaining for everyone. It is not a film aimed at child audiences, but ideally for adults and children to go to the cinema together," explains producer Vratislav Šlajer.
