Helena Třeštíková: Mallory
Colleague Allan Berg wrote a review of “Mallory” when it was shown at CPH:DOX, here is how festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic introduces the film that will be shown at Magnificent7 tonight, taken from http://www.magnificent7festival.org/en/index.php:
The most recent documentary of one of the most important European authors of documentary film, awarded Grand Prix for Best Documentary at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, made in the unique style of her most famous works, born over years of work. This time Helena Trestikova spent 13 years following and recording everything important happening to Mallory, a young, initially problematic girl, who goes on to become a mother before the camera, and struggles in clumsy and unusual ways to find her place under the sun. Despite temptations and weaknesses, she matures, stumbles and falls, but always finds the strength to pick herself back up again. Precisely in these moments of refusal to submit to despair, unusual twists occur, leading this film, one of a series of the best-known films of Helena Trestikova concerning young people left to fend for themselves on the streets, to gradually become a fascinating contemporary fairy tale told in the bitter tones of precisely documented reality.
Masterfully directed, analytical and empathic to its core “Mallory” reaches the pinnacles of verité documentary films. The film was shot by a total of six different cameraman, an unavoidable consequence of the vicissitudes of such a project, but it is astounding how the photography and camera retain their style, and the frames always appear though-out and precise, full of an authentic atmosphere of the filmed space and the lighting dispositions. The excellent editing of Jakub Hejna, a long-time collaborator of Trestikova, lends the films an extraordinary dynamism, while events and years fly before our eyes building a flawless dramatic composition of the film.
“Mallory” is a powerful testament of the wonders hidden in seemingly simple images of reality, which obtain their full meaning thanks to a unique insight, one capable of encompassing long periods in the life of the main character.
Director’s Word: We hope that our film can inspire the audience, who feel that they’re not doing well in their life. (And that can happen to almost everyone.) The message of the film is simple: change is possible and hope always exists.
Czech Republic, 2015, 97 minutes
