Some people can no longer imagine the Christmas holidays without the film Pelíšky, which was shot in 1999 by director Jan Hřebejk. The film is sometimes sad and happy, and the most famous Czech actors were cast in the roles. The exception is Emília Vášáryová (82). She played Kraus’ mother in the film, but the Slovak was not the director’s first choiceadmitted years later for .
The creators first counted on Iva Janžurová (83). But the situation developed in such a way that, in the end, cooperation did not take place. “She interprets it as she wanted a change in the script and we didn’t accept it. But that one the change was that, perhaps out of superstition, she did not want to die. Which couldn’t be changed because it would change the tone of the entire script. I adore Iva Janžurová, no one can match her in the range of roles she played,” he explained.
On the other hand, he insisted on casting was his fellow director and screenwriter Jiří Krejčíkwho played the role of the sympathetic Mr. Professor Starek.
“We cast him in the film so that he could talk to us. There were about 15 minutes of story in the script after the occupation. And that’s what he talked to me about. He declared that it was terribly chatty and that we shouldn’t go for that August. We had such an ironic scene from the beginning of the normalization, as the characters continue, but he felt that it would have lost its effectiveness and it would have gone downhill. And he was absolutely right. We didn’t even shoot it afterwards,” he finished.
