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LevelK has boarded “We Have Never Been Modern,” a Czech period drama inspired by the true story of intersex people in the 1930’s. The film has been selected at Karlovy Vary and will be released in Czech Republic by Bontonfilm.

The movie, which marks the feature debut of Matěj Chlupáček (“Zrádci”), follows Helena, who is about to have a baby with an affluent factory manager. All her illusions soon perish when the dead body of a newborn intersex baby is found in the middle of their factory. Helena needs to find out what happened there for the safety of her own child, but she runs into her own prejudices.

“We Have Never Been Modern” stars Eliška Křenková, Miloslav König and newcomer Richard Langdon.

Chlupáček, who also produced the film, said he “chose to tell the story of ‘We Have Never Been’ because it communicates current and important topics, such as...

★★★☆☆ Shimmering corn fields and the blazing midday sun may not seem like natural environs for spooky supernatural horror, but Jiří Sádek's The Noonday Witch employs them to suitably disconcerting effect. With a tinge of Philip Ridley's The Reflecting Skin, it re-purposes a traditional Slavonic folktale - popularised both as a poem by Karel Erben and a symphonic ballad by Antonin Dvořák - into the conventions of modern horror. The original tale is laden with psychological potential and Sádek and his collaborators, Michal Samir and Matej Chulpacek, have channelled that into a very contemporary film steeped in dread but ultimately concerned with the twisting of grief and maternal anxiety.

Hany, an experimental drama made in one continuous shot by Czech director Michal Samir, has won the top prize at the 21st Oldenburg International Film Festival, the indie fest known as “Germany's Sundance,” which wrapped on Sunday. French crime thriller Fever, from director Raphael Neal, received a special mention from the Oldenburg jury. Newcomer Victoria Schulz won Oldenburg's acting honor, the Seymour Cassel Award, for her starring role in Christian Frosch's Von jetzt an kein Zuruck (From Here On, No Way Back), a period drama co-starring Ben Becker. Oldenburg's lifetime achievement honor this year went to Australian cult

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Berlinale festival director Dieter Kosslick and veteran Polish film-maker Andrzej Wajda are to receive the Kristian Award for their Contributions to World Cinema at this week’s Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest.

The award for Wajda will be accepted on his behalf by the actor Robert Więckiewicz, who plays the title in the director’s latest film Walesa: Man Of Hope, at Febiofest’s opening ceremony on 20 March.

“There is probably not a person in Central European cinema who would document their homeland’s history with such consistency and emphasis on the desire for freedom and protection of elementary moral values,” Febiofest’s programme director Stefan Uhrik commented.

“Visionary“ Kosslick

The honour for Kosslick will be his first Czech award to add to a host of other distinctions he has received during over 30 years working in the world of film funding and, latterly, festival programming at the Berlinale since 2001.

“He is a visionary man who is also...