Absence of Closeness

Hedvika doesn’t have much luck with the men in her life, and when her latest affair with a married man comes to grief she takes her three-month-old daughter Adélka and her dog to live with her mother and boyfriend in a posh country villa. The young woman’s relati­onship with her distant mother isn’t ideal, and she also senses her own maternal feelings for Adélka are still somewhat lacking. One day she chances upon some diaries in her mother’s house that her late father had written to her when she was a child. Reading the diaries, conjuring up faint memories and contemplating decisions made long ago – and their consequences – effect a change in her… Even in his college films, debuting director Josef Tuka focused on stories of a more intimate nature in which he explored interpersonal relationships, a skill he also successfully employs in Absence of Closeness. This small-scale psychological drama is shored up by its realistic characters, an understated performance from Jana Plodková, and perceptive, discreet lensing.