The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding and its 60th edition this year. In addition to Hollywood celebrities, it has long celebrated and honored big Czech stars. This year, KVIFF will bestow its President’s Award on a famous Slovak actress who became an ambassador and respected voice in political life.
“By presenting an award to Magda Vášáryová, the festival aims not just to express its respect for the performances of one of the greatest Slovak actresses of all time, but also to remember the unique artistic connection between the Czech and Slovak filmmakers who shaped our two countries’ shared cinematic history,” organizers said. Slovakia and Czechia became separate independent countries again at the start of 1993, following the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
Vášáryová “has always been outstanding, including in terms of her intelligence in selecting her parts and her ability to use her depth, both intellectual and emotional, in her characters,” KVIFF artistic director Karel Och tells THR. “With her, it is a bit like with Eric Cantona, who decided, when he was 30, that it was enough and so he stopped playing soccer to do other things [, including acting]. Every now and then, you have this fantastic Renaissance personality, such as Mrs. Vášáryová, who became a very respected politician.” Lauding her intelligence, ability to express complex connections, “beautiful sense of humor and the Central European sense for irony, it is a great pleasure to [honor] her,” Och concludes. “I can’t wait for her to join the festival and accept the award. In this double anniversary year, when we look a lot into the past and at the heritage of the festival, we were striving to honor a special person, who is connecting the world of cinema with other worlds beyond culture.”The 77-year-old Vášáryová may be well known in Czechia and Slovakia, but in case you need a primer, THR has compiled a few things to know about her right here.Breakthrough FilmVášáryov had her breakthrough role in František Vláčil’s historical drama Marketa Lazarová in 1967. “In 1998, domestic film critics and journalists voted this cinematic masterpiece as the most important work of our hundred-year cinematic history,” KVIFF highlighted in unveiling its plans to honor her. “The film was digitally restored in 2011, and the restored version’s world premiere was held at the 46th KVIFF.”The actress, not even 20 back then, plays the titular character in the movie.What is the Czechoslovak New Wave period epic, an adaptation of a 1931 novel by Vladislav Vančura, about? Set in the 13th century amid a shift from Paganism to Christianity in Central Europe, the film tells the story of the virgin daughter of a feudal lord who gets kidnapped by marauders before she is set to join a convent.She Didn’t Always Have Her Eye on the ArtsVášáryová became a famous actress, but she originally didn’t focus on the arts. Instead, she attended a school with a focus on math and physics. But the international success of Marketa Lazarová brought further acting offers. As KVIFF highlighted: “Vášáryová has said that she had originally not dreamt of becoming an actress.” Luckily for fans, things ended up playing out differently, and she acted in more films and started to perform at the Divadlo Na korze theater in Bratislava, which was famous for its absurdist drama, political satire, and avant-garde productions.
