Viktor Dvorak has been cast in \u201cHavel,\u201d a biopic of V\u00e1clav Havel, as the Czech playwright, dissident and national leader.\u00a0Anna Geislerova, who starred in Oscar nominated \u201cZelary,\u201d plays his wife, Olga Havlova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jiri Bartoska, the president of Karlovy Vary Film Festival, will appear in the film as \u201cProfessor,\u201d inspired by Czech philosopher Jan Patocka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pic will follow Havel\u2019s life from the Prague Spring in 1968 to the Velvet Revolution in 1989, when Havel became Czechoslovakia\u2019s president. As well as covering Havel\u2019s experiences as a dissident and his time in prison, it will also focus on his relationship with Olga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The film is helmed by Czech filmmaker Sl\u00e1vek Hor\u00e1k, who was chosen as one of\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u2019s 10 Directors to Watch in 2015. It is Hor\u00e1k\u2019s second feature film following his 2015 feature debut, \u201cHome Care,\u201d which won lead actress prizes for Alena Mihulov\u00e1 at Karlovy Vary, and the Czech Lions. The film was chosen as the Czech entry for the foreign-language film Oscar, and was a hit at the local box office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the start of his career, Hor\u00e1k served as second assistant director on Jan Sverak\u2019s 1996 Oscar winner, \u201cKolya,\u201d and later forged a successful career in advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHavel,\u201d produced by Hor\u00e1k\u2019s company TVORBA Films, received 14.5 million Czech koruna ($635,000) from the Czech Film Fund. It will shoot in September and October, and will premiere in spring 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Czech version of Elle magazine, Hor\u00e1k explained how he came to cast the lead role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven after seeing many great Czech actors for the lead we still didn\u2019t have Havel \u2013 until my co-writer [Rudolf Such\u00e1nek] remembered that he shared a dormitory room during his film school years with a boy \u2018who was kinda similar to Havel and studied acting.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe called him up and when he walked through the door and did the first scene I knew it was him. I\u2019d never heard of him before \u2013 he did mostly theater and TV and I am not a big fan of either \u2013 but since that first moment I knew it was him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe is Havel even when not acting; he is even born in the same astrological sign! So my co-writer\u2019s schoolmate, completely unknown in Czech film, will be the lead of what will be probably the most discussed film in the Czech Republic next year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n