Directed by:
Jakub WagnerScreenplay:
Jakub WagnerCinematography:
Viktor SmutnýComposer:
Ondřej SoukupPlots(1)
A cinematic portrait of the legendary jockey Josef Váňa gradually reveals the inner world of his thoughts. It is not easy to describe his lifestyle in words, you have to experience it - see it. We spend a unique, informal year up close and personal with Váňa. The film, in its imagery, becomes Váňa and it also goes behind the scenes of the sport of steeplechase, which isn't always what feature films would lead us to believe it is. Váňa acts as a magnet on people wherever he appears. There is unbelievable electricity just when you say his name. Váňa is not only a phenomenon because he won, at 59 years of age, his eighth Grand Pardubice Steeplechase, his third in a row, not only because he is surrounded by today's top jockeys and he trains the best racehorses, but mainly because of his approach to everything he does and everything he encounters. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (2)
The documentary isn't well shot, there are bad audio tracks, and it's assembled so strangely that while it looks like it has a progression, in reality, it doesn't. Josef Váňa's personality actually saves quite a bit of it, and the viewer will at least be entertained because it's clear that he simply remains himself. The opening audio will blow your mind, though.
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Wagner’s habit of constantly babbling something from behind the camera, but never saying anything, never finishing anything and never asking about anything specific, makes you want to hit him. The director’s inability to express himself or to say something of worth is completely in tune with result itself. It’s called Váňa, Váňa is on the screen all the time, but it’s not about Váňa at all. It’s not about the hard work and self denial, success (failure), beginnings, career, life, the stable, his surroundings, his background... it’s simply not about anything. Well maybe it’s just a bit about breaking each of the more than two hundred bones in the body. In any case to choose such an interesting personality as your theme and not to get any more out of it than just TV footage of finishes of the Pardubice Grand National Race is a great shame.
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