Ceiling & Lullaby
Ceiling - Věra Chytilová / 1961 / 41' / Czech Republic
Made in 1962 as Věra Chytilová’s FAMU graduation film, this medium-length work returns to the world of modelling, a profession she briefly practiced. It follows Marta, a seemingly content mannequin whose chance encounter with a former medical-school colleague reveals the invisible “ceiling” constraining her life. Though played by non-actress Marta Kaňkovská, the story is fictional and centers on Chytilová’s theme of female emancipation. A striking example of docu-fiction, it blends documentary-style observation with drama and features early appearances by future Czechoslovak New Wave figures Jiří Menzel and Miloš Forman.
Lullaby -Binka Zhelyazkova / 1982 / 58' / Bulgaria
Crying babies. Some burst into tears; others startle at the sound of doors closing. Corridors and stairwells in the women’s prison in Sliven. Alongside its adult inmates, the prison is at that moment home to 17 babies—innocent and unconvicted.
What kindness can reach the eyes and ears of a newborn in prison? The film recounts the stories of mothers who entered prison while pregnant, gave birth there—more precisely, at Sliven Hospital—and whose children are raised in the prison nursery.
Final title card: This film was made with the assistance of the management of Sliven Correctional Facility and the people incarcerated there.
29.09 18:30 Czech Center
This screening is supported by Another Story, find out more here: https://www.documental.bg/en/another-story-x-sofia-documental/