OBEŤ

Sceneggiatura / Screenplay: Jakub Medvecký. Fotografia / Photography: Adam Mach. Montaggio / Editing: Petr Hasalík. Suono / Sound: Clemens Endreß, Matthias Schwab. Scenografia / Art Director: Stella Šonková. Interpreti / Cast: Vita Smachelyuk, Gleb Kuchuk, Igor Chmela, Viktor Zavadil, Inna Zhulina, Alena Mihulová, Veronika Weinhold, Gabriela Míčová, Claudia Dudová. Produzione / Produced by: Nutprodukcia, Nutprodukce. Coproduzione / Co-produced by: Electric Sheep, Czech Television, Radio and Television Slovakia. Con il sostegno di / Supported by: Slovak Audiovisual Fund, Czech Film Fund, Eurimages, MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, German Federal Film Fund, Creative Europe Programme – MEDIA, Jihomoravský fond, Ústecký kraj, Plzeňský kraj. Distribuzione internazionale / World Sales: Pluto Film.

When the son of Ukrainian immigrant Irina is attacked, the whole city stands up in solidarity with her family and condemns their Roma neighbors, who allegedly committed the crime. But soon another truth starts to emerge. Victim is a suspenseful drama about a woman seeking justice in a racist society, torn between family and the search for the truth. The film premiered at the “Orizzonti” section of the Venice Film Festival in 2022.

“Both storylines, the mother-son storyline and the individual-society storyline, are intimately intertwined, constantly overlapping and feeding into each other. By painting an emotional portrait of Irina, I wanted to expose the Central European society for which she temporarily becomes a mascot, until eventually winding up as its caricature. The leitmotif of the film is manipulation, permeating multiple layers of the narrative, although everything starts with something seemingly banal, Igor’s lie, which unexpectedly gives society an excuse to unleash all the hatred dwelling at its core. The fact that Irina and Igor are Ukrainians, and thus belong to the minority that is most heavily represented in the Czech Republic while still not being fully accepted, also gives the main characters a unique perspective.” (M. Blaško)

Michal Blaško
Born in Bratislava in 1989, Michal Blaško studied film and television directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and FAMO Písek. His short films premiered at the most prestigious film festivals around the world and won several awards. Victim is his first feature film. It was one of the projects selected for the 2019 edition of When East Meets West, where it was awarded the EAVE Producers Workshop Scholarship and the Flow Postproduction Award.

filmografia scelta / selected filmography
2015 Strach (Fear) cm / sf; Premi / Awards: Vilnius IFF – Miglior cortometraggio / Best Short Film 2017 The Truck cm / sf 2017 Atlantída, 2003 (Atlantis, 2003) cm / sf 2022 Podezření (Suspicion) serie TV / TV series 2022 Obeť (Sacrificio / Victim)