Jan Němec working on his last film, The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street

46th International Film Festival Rotterdam

25 January - 5 February 2017

Rotterdam, 1 July 2016

The 46th International Film Festival Rotterdam (January 25 - February 5 2017) will pay special tribute to Czech filmmaker Jan Němec (1936-2016) with an extensive retrospective of his work. One of the pioneers of the Czech New Wave in the 1960s and a key figure in Eastern European avant-garde cinema, Jan Němec created a unique and highly diverse oeuvre that includes features, documentaries and experimental films.

IFFR will present a wide range of Jan Němec's work, including the international premiere of The Wolf from Royal Vineyard Street (2016), his final film in which he playfully re-enacts and reimagines his own life.

Already pushing the political limits in Czechoslovakia with now classic films such as Diamonds of the Night (1964) and A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966), Němec's position became increasingly difficult after the crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968. This resulted in the banning of his documentary elegy Oratorio for Prague (1968) and in 1974 Němec was forced into exile. He returned only after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc.

Nevertheless, Němec never stopped developing his non-conformist vision, challenging the boundaries of artistic freedom as well as the limits of film as a medium, turning to more autobiographical subjects in the last twenty years of his career.

The retrospective at the 46th International Film Festival Rotterdam is organized in partnership with the Czech Film Center and will be the first essential tribute to Jan Němec since his passing in March 2016. 

The complete list of films that will be included in the retrospective will be published this fall on IFFR’s website.