RENÉ (AUSSER KONKURRENZ)

Filmed over the course of twenty years, this is the story of René Plašil, a creative, misanthropic outlaw whose attitude towards life is neatly summed up by the tattoo across his neck: 'fuck of people.' Beginning in 1988, when René, aged just 18, was serving time in a Czech prison with socialist posters plastered across the walls, Helena Třeštíková’s film chronicles a life spent mostly behind bars. Her camera follows René from prison cell to prison cell and through his brief periods spent outside the prison walls, where he has found himself alienated in an ever-changing society. The protagonist becomes a published author, burgles the director’s home, gets diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and discovers he has an exceptionally high IQ. Meanwhile the Czech Republic undergoes tremendous political changes. Czech history from the Velvet Revolution to EU accession provides the backdrop for this life history of a complicated, introspective man. This is a gritty authentic piece, tinged with a slightly uncomfortable familiarity between filmmaker and subject.