29/05/2019 - The director of the best Slovakian film of 2018, The Interpreter, reflects changes in our world in realist and fantasy layers

(l-r) Actor Miroslav Krobot, director Martin Šulík and actress Alexandra Borbély on the set of Man with Rabbit Ears (© Titanic/In Film)

After his latest film The Interpreter [+see also:
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film profile] was recently named the best Slovak film of the 2018 by the Slovak Film and Television Academy (read the news), director Martin Šulík has already stepped into the production of his newest project, Man with Rabbit Ears. Šulík’s new comedy follows an aging writer who is expecting a child with his young girlfriend. In order to start a new life, he has to divorce his wife he had not seen in ten years and amend his relationships with his estranged children.

Writer-director Martin Šulík says the film is supposed to reflect the changes in our world in the last couple of decades, where “egoism is the illness of our society”, as he explains. Although, he adds, the film won’t be depressing and moralising. The title refers to the special ability that the protagonist suddenly acquires – extraordinary hearing, which enables him not only to eavesdrop on what other people are saying, but also to hear what they are actually thinking. 

The director notes that Man with Rabbit Ears will be different from the films he was making before. He likes that the film “talks about serious things with exaggeration”. Šulík reveals the film actually has two layers: a realistic one, and a fantastic one consisting of dreamy imagery reflecting the protagonist’s inner world. According to the director, the fantasy part should be rendered in the veneer “of the first black-and-white projects of videoart”.

The crew from the road movie The Interpreter is united again on Man with Rabbit Ears, with Marek Leščák who co-wrote the script with the director, Martin Štrba back behind the camera, Vladimír Godár making the score and Rudolf Biermann, Šulík long-time producer, shares producing duties with the director. Principal photography began at the end of April and is expected to last for two months. The film crew will shoot mostly around the Slovak and Czech capitals. Venerated Czech actor and director Miroslav Krobot stars in the leading role and is joined by the European Actress of 2017, Alexandra Borbély of the Golden Bear-winning On Body and Soul [+see also:
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interview: Ildiko Enyedi
interview: Ildiko Enyedi
interview: Réka Tenki
film profile] and Slovakian actresses Táňa Pauhofová (The Devil's Mistress [+see also:
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interview: Jan Hřebejk
film profile]). 

Man with Rabbit Ears is produced by Šulík’s own company Titanic (Slovakia), Rudolf Biermann’s In Film (Czech Republic) with Czech Television and Radio and Television Slovakia co-producing. Slovak Audiovisual Fund and Czech Film Fund supported the project. Garfield Film will release the film in Slovakia in Spring 2020 and AQS Bioscop is expected to handle the theatrical run in the Czech Republic.