Best European Documentary of 2008: From Czech Republic

The Czech director Helena Trestikova gained the price for the best European documentary movie. It is the first Czech movie, which has been appreciated by the academy during its existence, a sucess which the moderate woman didn’t expect at all. Prizes of the European film academy Prix Arte are considered to be the European Oscars. The prize for the best documentary movie went to Helena Trestikova and her movie Rene. The author seemed really surprised: “I absolutely didn’t expect it. Just the nomination was something I considered the top one can achieve.”

The Trestikova bets on relationships and social problematics, she made about fifty short documentary movies, picturing young delinquents, necromaniacs or prostitutes. Her specialization is the time-collecting method, where the film protagonists are watched and filmed by her for tens of years. This way, she created the Marital Etudes, which was a stunning success in Czech Television. One of the etudes was developed into the documentary film Rene (he is a recidivist who even robbed her house), which won the festival.