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Little remains known today of Josef Mysliveček, an 18th-century composer who found immense fame and success in Italy during his lifetime. Born in what is now the Czech Republic, Mysliveček crafted magnificent operas that entranced Italian audiences, placing him among the most renowned musical talents of his time. Yet somehow, within just a few generations, his name and music were lost to the winds of history.

Director Petr Václav seeks to change that with his film Il Boemo. More than just tell Mysliveček’s story, Václav wants to resurrect the composer’s legacy and introduce new audiences to his beautiful compositions. No small task, pulling a virtually forgotten figure out of obscurity.

Through dramatizing Mysliveček’s journey from poverty to prominence and back again, does the film truly do justice to its subject? More importantly, does it accomplish what matters most—sparking modern interest in this talented man’s long-silent musical works?...

”It’s all about enthusiam, stubborness and determination,” he says.

Aged 85, Roger Gibson is preparing for his final edition as artistic director of the Chichester International Film Festival. He has built it into one of the UK’s leading regional film festivals since launching it in 1992.

Over the years guests travelling to the south of England festival have included Alec Guinness, Stephen Poliakoff, Kathleen Turner, Ken Russell, Mike Leigh and Ralph Fiennes. This year’s guest list is equally impressive: the festival has programmed retrospectives of work by Cate Blanchett and Hugh Bonneville, and both actors are set to attend,...

Tunisian Murder Mystery ‘Ashkal’ Triumphs At Fespaco

Tunisian director Youssef Chebbi’s investigative thriller Ashkal has won the top prize at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Fespaco). The festival, which ran from February 25 to March 4, unfolds every two years in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou and is regarded as Africa’s equivalent of Cannes. Chebbi’s murder mystery revolves around a series of killings at a construction site on the outskirts of the Tunisian capital of Tunis. The film world premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and then played a raft of other festivals including Toronto and London. The Fespaco jury head, producer Dora Bouchoucha, praised the film’s pairing of a strong aesthetic with a politically tuned-in storyline. Burkinabe filmmaker Apolline Traore won the Silver Stallion for Sira, about a woman kidnapped by Jihadists, and Kenyan director Angela Wamai took home the Bronze Stallion for Shimoni,...

Il Boemo, a biopic on 18th-century composer Josef Myslivecek, from director Petr Václav (The Way Out) took the top prize, for best Czech Film, at the 2023 Czech Lions awards.

The period drama, about the forgotten composer, was a frontrunner going into the Lions, as the Czech Republic’s official Oscar contender (it wasn’t nominated). In the end, Il Boemo won six Czech Lions, including best director for Vaclav and honors for best set design, costumes and makeup. Accepting the best film trophy, Il Boemo producer Jan Macola, thanked writer-director Václav for spending 12 years working on the project.

Il Boemo premiered in competition at the 70th San Sebastian film festival last year.

Michal Kern took best actor honors for his performance in Arved, another period biopic about a forgotten figure from Czech history, from director Vojtech Masek. In the drama, Kern plays Jiri Arved Smichovsky, a Czech occultist and Nazi collaborator.

At the height of his career, Czech-born composer Josef Mysliveček was the most prolific and sought-after figure in Italian opera, bound for immortal celebrity. Nearly three centuries later, his name isn’t forgotten to classical music scholars, but neither does it have anything approaching household status; the facts and records of his personal life, meanwhile, have largely been lost to history. Via a blend of free narrative speculation and exacting musical presentation, Petr Vaclav’s stately, sumptuous biopic “Il Boemo” seeks to restore a degree of iconic status to a talent latterly overshadowed by relative 18th-century contemporaries, albeit not with much swagger or modernity of its own: This is costume drama of a traditional, ornately brocaded stripe, a classical music lesson for classicists.

That’s not likely to do “Il Boemo” any harm as it further travels the festival circuit following its world premiere in San Sebastian’s main competition,...

Making its world premiere in the main competition at the San Sebastián Festival on Sept. 19, “Il Boemo,” the story of a forgotten Czech composer who rose to fame in the second half of the 18th century, has taken the award-winning filmmaker Petr Václav more than a decade to complete.

Known as Il Boemo, Josef Mysliveček’s fame was short-lived. He died before reaching the age of 44, after a whirlwind career composing music for Italian courts and theaters.

But Václav, together with his DPs, Diego Romero and Suarez Llanos, costume designer Andrea Cavalletto, and a slew of top operatic singers, has created an action-packed period piece, celebrating his tumultuous life, operatic drama, and the aesthetic beauty of the era.

Variety spoke with Václav ahead of the film’s outing.

Why isn’t Josef Mysliveček as well known today as some of his contemporaries?

He is certainly not the only composer who has been forgotten.

The film will head to Busan International Film Festival next month.

Slovakia has selected Michal Blasko’s drama Victim as its entry for the international feature award at the 2023 Oscars.

The film debuted in Horizons at Venice Film Festival earlier this month, going on to play in Contemporary World Cinema at Toronto.

It will have its Asian bow in competition at Busan International Film Festival next month. German-based Pluto Film is handling world sales on the title.

Victim follows a Ukrainian immigrant living with her son in a small Czech border town. She is devastated when he is assaulted by...