We are delighted to announce the next film as part of New East Cinema, our programme of contemporary film from the New East, in partnership with the Barbican Centre, curated by The New Social.

We Are Never Alone

Czech Republic / France, 2016, dir. Petr Vaclav, 105 mins

In a non-descript small Czech town, a handful of people come together: a paranoid and rage-filled prison guard, his hypochondriac neighbour and the latter’s silent, despairing wife, a lovesick nightclub manager, and a stripper who is a single mom. Their encounters soon weave into a drama of explosive proportions that exceeds the provincial setting of this anonymous drive-through place.

The latest feature from Petr Vaclav, one of the foremost voices in Czech cinema, shifts from the realistic to the bizarre with a dark humour that doesn’t falter even in the most grotesque of circumstances.

None of the characters we encounter are at the peak of a successful, satisfied or fulfilled life. All of them, from the hypochondriac’s wife (Lenka Vlasáková) who is desperate for some love and a male touch, to the nightclub manager (Zdeněk Godla) who pines for one of his girls (Klaudia Dudová), live a drab and mundane black-and-white existence. Periodically though, their everyday life takes on the brighter colours of hope and desire.

We Are Never Alone was awarded the Tagesspiegel Readers’ Jury Award at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival.

Part of the 20th Made in Prague Film Festival, 5 November – 2 December 2016, from the Czech Centre London.

About New East Cinema

New East Cinema is a bi-monthly film series curated by The New Social, presented by Calvert 22 in collaboration with the Barbican Centre, which looks across eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia and Central Asia to uncover the most thought-provoking, daring and vibrant cinema coming from today’s New East.