Imbued with the same kind of quirky charm as Hunt for the Wilderpeople and The Peanut Butter Falcon, Winter Flies introduces Mára and Hedus, two mismatched adolescent boys on a road trip in a stolen car. Hedus is uncomfortably dressed in a ghillie suit and totes a pellet gun, while Mára is shaven-headed, seemingly more confident and, at 14 years of age, a great driver. Their seemingly aimless progress through a bleakly beautiful Czech landscape is filled with misadventure and self-discovery and framed by their flippant rejection of the adult world and by a comically distorted obsession with sex. Just like the flies that buzz about haphazardly as winter sets in, these two are not sure where they are going and are possibly doomed. Warm and likeable characters in combination with a perceptive script and a delightful musical score capture the excitement and confusion of adolescence in an entertaining and insightful coming-of-age story.
Winter Flies won Best Director at the 2018 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It also swept the board at the 2018 Czech Lions (the Czech equivalent of the UK’s BAFTAs), winning the Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Film awards.
“Winter Flies,… is the third feature from Omerzu, and it further cements the 33-year-old Slavic director’s status as a force to be reckoned with… Mrvík’s face, viewed largely in close-up and angrily streaked with tears, is flat-out electrifying. He’s a real find, as are composers Monika Midriaková (Omerzu’s fiancé) and Šimon Holy” - Roger Ebert.
“It’s the performances that stay with you, and the two young first-time-actor leads are a revelation” - Variety.
“Observant and wise about boys in puberty yet impish and carefree when necessary and never idealizing the cold and dreary countryside they travel through, Winter Flies is a lovely little film that’s as comfortable as an old sweater and almost as warm” - The Hollywood Reporter.
Nb - Winter Flies contains frank and sometimes coarse language of a sexual nature.
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