Ice Mother

Is it possible to break out of one’s routine and head in a new direction later on in life? Sixty-year-old Hana is unexpectedly given the impulse to do just that when she meets contemporary Broňa, who encourages her to take up physical conditioning. This puts the wind up Hana’s grown-up sons, who have been brazenly abusing her generosity. The prospect of a new romance with a hardy nonconformist, who arrives at a family lunch with a hen friend called Adele, finally goads Hana into changing the established order… In his new tragicomedy director Bohdan Sláma abandons the socially marginalised protagonists from previous films such as Something Like Happiness and Four Suns, he nevertheless continues to examine familiar themes – broken family relationships, the quest for love and happiness, and the characters’ ability to transform their lives. The director likewise seeks to create parallel emotional bonds as the family structures change during the course of the film. Broňa, for example, becomes a father figure to Hana’s introverted grandson Ivánek, here accurately portrayed by young newcomer Daniel Vízek. On the occasion of its premiere screening at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York the film was awarded Best Screenplay.