Cultural exchanges flourish to mark 65th anniversary of Sino-Czech ties

Film Festivals

Czechic films have long enjoyed a strong reputation worldwide and one classic, Czech Train Attendant, has planted a deep impression on global audiences. A Czech film festival was held at the Beijing Film Academy, the top institution of Chinese film circles, on Nov 24.

The well-known Czech film, Killer Portrait, and the documentary that commemorates the 65th anniversary of Sino-Czech diplomatic relations, Happy Together, were played at the opening ceremony.

Killer Portrait was released in 2009 and it is a non-mainstream work with dark themes. The film explores whether the evil and the dark side of humanity is inborn or is formed under social repression. The director Julius Sevcík told the public that his favorite film director is Wang Jiawei, a celebrated Chinese artist. In fact, some of the scenes in Killer Portrait are quite "Wang Jiawei-style". The Czech film was well received at the event.

"In terms of the theme, the film explores the influence of childhood experience towards a person's whole life. The struggle and paradox of the good and the evil in humanity has been fully revealed; in terms of filming technique and production skills, this film is great," said a postgraduate student at the Beijing Film Academy after seeing the film.

Qi Siyuan, the head of the Central and Eastern European branch of Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA) also was present.

"Very few original Czech films are played in China and I think these kinds of culture exchanges are very important. Activities like this will deepen mutual understanding and enhance our knowledge to Czech culture. We hope to see more exchanges in film industries in the future," he said.