Miroslav Janek: The Confessions of Kataryna K.
Three persons in one room. Plus a film crew. Not a lot of space but the great Czech director and cameraman Mira Janek manages to move around to observe and catch the intense atmosphere of quite a unique family: blind mother, blind daughter and seeing man. The mother is the central character and the one that communicates with the camera, the one that performs wonderfully for the viewers and the one whose story we get told without any sentimentality but with energy and humour. Very much present is also the hyperactive daughter, who dances in circles when the mother sings – and the husband, always in the background doing something in the kitchen, or taking a nap on his chair or smoking a cigarette on the balcony. Only once Kataryna forces him to the forefront to tell the story about how the two of them met. Wonderful!
Kataryna K. comes from Ukraine. She went to Prague, met her Honza, got pregnant and gave birth to a girl, who inherited her sight handicap. Kataryna talks through the whole duration of the film and stays passionately around the Jewish rituals and songs she knows about. Archive from their wedding highlights this very important event in their life.
A room with music, Kataryna rehearses the performances she is doing outside the room – and sometimes she sits at a desk and talks to the camera. Or at the piano. The room is full of cakes and the film is in the good sense of the word simply sweet! What a Life and what a Woman.
Czech Republic, 2009, 53 mins., for Czech Television
http://www.kviff.com/en/film-detail/2797-the-confessions-ofkaterynak/
