Ungrateful Beings_dir.O.Omerzu_3

Source: endorfilm

‘Ungrateful Beings’

Production is underway in Croatia and the Czech Republic on Ungrateful Beings, the English-language debut of Czech-based Slovenian filmmaker Olmo Omerzu.

Jimmy’s Hall actor Barry Ward and Slovak-Italian star Barbora Bobulova lead the cast, alongside newcomers Dexter Franc and Antonin Chmela, and Slovenian actor Timon Sturbej, who was named a European Film Promotion Shooting Star in 2022.

Ungrateful Beings follows a family in the Czech Republic who come back from an Adriatic holiday where their 17-year-old daughter – who suffers from an eating disorder – has fallen in love with a local scoundrel. When it turns out he is a murder suspect, the daughter’s parents pretend to be him in order to stave off her eating disorder.

Omerzu wrote the film with Nebojsa Pop-Tasic and Kasha Jandackova. Jiri Konecny produces for Czech company endorfilm.

Konecny produced Omerzu’s four previous features, including 2021 Karlovy Vary title Bird Atlas and 2018’s Winter Flies, which won six awards at the Czech Lions national film awards including best film and director, and was the Czech Republic’s Oscar submission.

The film has backing from the Czech Film Fund, Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Slovenian Film Centre and Polish Film Institute.

“Ungrateful Beings tells the story of a family in crisis,” Omerzu told Screen. “I try to highlight the question of how far the family is prepared to help their daughter recover from anorexia. The focal point of their situation is self-denial.

“This title critically reflects the manipulative behavior of adults towards children. Because if anyone is ungrateful, it is them, who are not satisfied with what they have, even though they themselves are to blame for their current situation.”

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