Zátopek - David Ondříček

A NEW FILM BY DAVID ONDŘÍČEK
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Emil Zatopek, from Collection of the National Museum in Prague; H7F 077844
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PRODUCER‘S
STATEMENT
The aim of the Zátopek project is to
make a feature film about the greatest
sportsman in the history of Czechoslovakia
and one of the world’s all-time greatest
sportsmen. The winner of four Olympic
medals, three of which he earned in just
a few days in Helsinki in 1952, Emil Zátopek
is one of the greatest figures in the entire
history of the Olympics, not just because
of his performance, but above all thanks
to his character. Through incredible hard
work and new training methods, this man
of average ability managed to beat the
whole world, his big heart substituting for
a lack of talent and elegance.
We want to shoot our film in honour
of a great man; as a tribute to the Olympic
ideals, which have helped and continue
to help people overcome harsh periods
of repression in various countries; and in
testimony of the noble battles of athletes
in an era when financial motivation still
counted for nothing.
Today, when hundreds of millions
of people around the world run every
day, we present to them as a role model
this man, who is described in every book
on running as one of the world’s greatest
runners. We believe, therefore, that
everybody with an interest in sport will
want to see this film.
The entire concept of the project‘s
development therefore takes an
BUDGET 3.7 EUR million
TIMELINE
2014 Financing, casting,
work on screenplay
2015 Shooting
2015–2016 Post-production
2016 August, gala première at the
Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games
unconventional path. The film is being
made as “gift” from the Czech Olympic
Committee to the International Olympic
movement and the première is therefore
planned to take place at the next Summer
Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The ZÁTOPEK film project has
arisen through the close cooperation of
the Czech Olympic Committee, Czech
Television and, last but not least, Emil
Zátopek’s wife, Dana Zátopková.
Kryštof Mucha, David Ondříček
producers
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late, soon managed to leave competitors
in his wake thanks to unconventional
training methods. Incidentally, there
can hardly have been a previous case in
elite sport of the first runner outrunning
the last by an entire lap. In total, he set
thirteen 1,000m world records and five
1,500m records. He became the first
person in the world to complete the 10km
in less than 29 minutes and the 20km in
under an hour.
At the Olympic Games in Helsinki
in 1952 – at the age of 30, when the
majority of runners are approaching the
end of their careers – he astounded the
whole world of sport when he took gold
in the 5,000m, the 10,000m and the
marathon, a discipline in which he was
participating for the first time ever. In each
of those disciplines he simultaneously
set a new Olympic record. He showed
that there is only one kind of running and
if somebody genuinely masters it and
understands it fully, it doesn’t matter what
distance he has trained in.
Emil Zatopek, from Collection of the National Museum in Prague; H7F 072228
WHO WAS
EMIL ZATOPEK?
When the US magazine Runner’s World
compiled a list of the world’s greatest
runners, the top names were those of
especially brilliant men: in all cases,
they were pioneers who, thanks to
their exceptional performance, closely
linked to no less fascinating life stories,
demonstrated that if somebody has
a strong enough will he can achieve
virtually anything.
Leonidas of Rhodes, born 188 BC,
the most famous Greek Olympics runner,
who at three games in a row won all three
running disciplines, running two naked
and one carrying a shield and wearing
bronze armour. The American Jesse
Owens, a legendary black runner who
had known poverty in his early years
and, in a period of racial segregation,
was forced to run in exhibition races
against horses and other animals. And
finally Emil Zátopek, a total outsider
from Czechoslovakia who accidentally
discovered within himself an unknown
talent and, despite starting to run very
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BRIEF SYNOPSIS
“A RUNNER
MUST RUN WITH
DREAMS IN HIS
HEART.”
Place: the Protectorate of Bohemia and
Moravia. National pride has been severely
undermined by the German occupation.
In a strictly guarded regime, sport is
virtually the only legal sphere in which it
is possible to defy the Nazis. However,
participating in sports in this period is not
easy. Food supplies are scant and a top
athlete gets the same amount of nutrition
as any other citizen. But maybe that gives
him the strength to fight.
Emil Zátopek grows up during
this time. This ordinary boy still has
no idea that in a few years his athletic
performance will astound the entire
world. He doesn’t like sport. He has never
excelled at it and as he is small with
a squeaky voice, the boys in the village
are constantly making fun of him. He’s not
a real boy, he can’t even play football. He
comes from a 10-member family, though
of all the brothers he is neither the oldest
(of whom their parents are proud) nor
the youngest (whom they pamper). From
a young age he tries to find some way to
stop being a failure. He’s clever, so when
he is accepted at the Baťa Industrial
School in Zlín it looks like a place where
he could achieve something. Even there,
however, he can’t escape being judged
physically. Athletics is blooming and
teachers are furiously looking for new
blood. Every year a run around the city,
which is compulsory for students and
school staff, is held in Zlín. Emil tries to get
out of it, fearing further embarrassment.
But in the end he is forced to take part.
However, at the starting line desperation
gives way to anger. “Who’s the fastest?”
he asks the participants around him. They
point forward: “Probably that guy. He’s
an athlete.” Emil determines to keep up
with the athlete. From the starting pistol,
he sticks to him. Emil simply runs, taking
nothing else in. Only two people reach
the finish line: the favourite and Emil,
the boy who hates sport. Everybody is
surprised, nobody more than Emil himself.
The winning feeling, hearing his name
being chanted – he wants to experience
that again. He begins training under one
of the country’s top trainers at that time.
Soon he is as good as the trainer. Emil
enters the army and starts to run for the
Dukla club. He never stops thinking and
improving his training techniques. As he
trains alone, frequently in a forest, he is
lonely. At a track and field meet he gets to
know Dana, a young javelin thrower. Their
relationship deepens and climaxes at the
London Olympics, where Emil triumphs
in the 10,000m and takes the gold. The
world discovers Zátopek.
Emil and Dana marry. Emil is an
international standard athlete. She is
mesmerised by the atmosphere of the
Olympics and sets her sights on the next
Games in Helsinki. She has two years to
prepare. Emil is constantly perfecting
and intensifying his training. He even
improves his condition at races when he
comes up against various rivals, many
of whom he knows and many of whom
he later competes against in Finland.
In addition, he is very popular there.
Emil has never hidden his admiration
for Norse runners and has studied their
methods. At the Olympics he enters all
three disciplines, though he has only
been in training for the 5,000m, in which
he finished second in London. He only
signs up for the marathon for fun. He has
never run one and would like to try it. As
he has never competed in the category
he has nothing to lose. In the end he wins
the lot. He creates a gigantic international
sensation. However, his enthusiasm is
soon replaced by frustration. Everybody
thinks that Emil is finished: it makes
sense, as there is nothing greater that
he could achieve. There is no reason for
him to keep running. Emil himself doesn’t
know what reason he has – and attempts
to uncover why he still has that impulse
within him. Bitterness is stirred in him by
foreign press reports of upcoming young
favourites and suggestions that Zátopek
is bound to start losing. Most of the world
expects nothing from him. The rest
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expect him to lose. As a result of all of this,
Emil really does lose several times. It is
as if he has lost his goal. In addition, there
has been more and more talk recently
about the Soviet favourite, Kuts. Naturally,
many sports writers and fans can’t help
but compare him to Zátopek. Emil himself
recalls how Kuts trod on his heel in their
last race. But when he hears how the
Soviet Union is loudly trumpeting their
favourite, he again has a good reason to
triumph. It’s not about coming first. He just
wants to defeat Kuts.
Emil sets his sights on a race in
Bucharest. On just one rival. It’s hard to
get into form for the race and training is
painful. Recently he feels that his body
is defying him. No matter how much
they wish him well, everybody expects
a Zátopek defeat. However, in the end he
beats not only Kuts but the entire field.
At the finish line he doesn’t keep running
like before. He has to stop and get his
breath back. He has to get to grips with
what he has achieved in his mind. The wild
cheering of the crowds is at the edge of
his perception. It is his last great victory.
This story gives the viewer a unique
chance to see into a world that no longer
exists: into the golden era of racing,
into a period of pioneering runners and
values such as honour, friendship and
modesty. With Emil’s departure from
the scene those times gradually came to
an end. Even sport was later unable to
resist influences at odds with the concept
of fair play, which not only Zátopek
but all other sportsmen then advocated
vocally. During the Cold War, sport, like
other fields, represented a power struggle
and unnatural pressure was placed on
sportsmen in a number of countries.
Later money began playing a larger role
in sport and healthy rivalry gave way to
drug-taking and backroom politics. For
that reason it is immensely important
to remember, through the story of Emil
Zátopek, an era not-so-long gone.
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DIRECTOR’S
TREATMENT
pictures. That is exactly what I plan with
Zátopek. I want to convey to the viewer
the extraordinary experience of racing
and to try to delve into the soul of a longdistance runner. I will try to capture his
agonies and desires, the times he wanted
to give it all up and the moments of victory.
My aim with the film Zátopek is to take
the viewer to the 1952 Olympics where
they will experience thrilling moments
alongside Emil Zátopek himself.
The film Zátopek will be told using
classical film language. I feel that I am at
the ideal age for a filmmaker, and I wish
to demonstrate refinement and a flair for
film; like Zátopek, I want to show what
I can do and to triumph.
The story of Emil Zátopek‘s life is
a thrilling one. I will do all I can to ensure
Zátopek is a great film.
David Ondříček
director
We thank Technical Museum Tatra in Kopřivnice for providing the images.
For me, the life story of Emil Zátopek
represents a huge challenge.
Zátopek is the story of an outsider,
a boy with a squeaky voice who was
mistaken for a girl, described by his own
mother as a weakling, and essentially
lacking in sporting talent. Simultaneously,
it is the story of a man with an enormous
will and desire to win, a dogged and
indomitable athlete who became a legend.
For me, Zátopek is an immensely
interesting and colourful character.
A loner and a thoughtful runner who at
the same time was a good-humoured
chatterbox with dreams of admiration.
An athlete with a huge desire to defeat
his rivals and then affectionately present
them with a gold medal.
The film Zátopek will be a linear
biographical drama in which the viewer
will see Emil Zátopek’s greatest successes
and setbacks in a new context. I like visual
films, and try to narrate a story through
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FILMMAKERS
Director, producer
David Ondříček (1969), the son of
famous cinematographer Miroslav
Ondříček, is one of the most distinctive
Czech directors of the post-Communist
period. He made his début with Whisper
(1996), following that picture up with
Loners (2000), which was produced
by his own company, Lucky Man Films.
Subsequently he shot One Hand Can’t
Clap (2003) and Grandhotel (2006),
which premièred at the Berlin Film
Festival. His most recent picture, In the
Shadow, picked up prizes in all of the
main categories at the Czech Film Critics
Awards and a Czech Lion prize, and was
the Czech Republic’s nomination for Best
Foreign Language Film in the Academy
Awards. In 2013 David Ondříček appeared
on Variety’s Directors 10 to Watch, a list
that highlights the most interesting
directors of the previous year.
Producer
Kryštof Mucha (1975) began working
at the Karlovy Vary International Film
Festival after graduating from the Arts
Faculty of Prague’s Charles University
in 1999. Since 2004 he has been the
festival’s executive director. As producer
he has previously worked with David
Ondříček on Grandhotel (2006) and
In the Shadow (2012).
Lead Role
Václav Neužil (1979) is a theatre, film
and television actor. He graduated from
the Theatre Faculty of Brno’s Janáček
Academy of Music and Performing Arts
and performed at the city’s Polárka,
National Theatre Brno and HaDivadlo
theatres. Since 2006, he has been
a member of the Dejvické divadlo theatre
in Prague. He received a Thálie theatre
award for his portrayal of Mugsy in the
latter’s production of Dealer’s Choice.
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CONTACTS
LUCKY MAN FILMS
Na Maninách 1590/29
170 00 Praha 7
I have chosen one of the most talented Czech actors, Václav Neužil, for the lead
role. I have been watching him since before the idea for the film Zátopek was born
and have had the opportunity to work with him both in the theatre and on the big
screen. Václav will prepare for the role of an athlete for over a year under experienced
trainers. He may not resemble Emil facially, but I am convinced that he is similar to
him in character. Václav possesses enormous willpower and at the same time a sense of
humour and subtlety. He feels that Zátopek would be his life‘s role, though at the same
time I believe it will not overwhelm him.
David Ondříček
+420 603 414 813
production@luckymanfilms.com
Kryštof Mucha
+420 602 273 942
mucha@kviff.com
Daria Špačková
+420 603 236 072
daria@luckymanfilms.com
David Ondříček, Director
www.luckymanfilms.com
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