M, a well-off, middle-aged man, accidentally spots a suspicious-looking, dark-skinned young man at the airport. An exchange of glances and a few words set into motion a gradually escalating series of events. Anonymous fear, stereotypes and a pervasive sense of danger crawl into M’s lonesome life. In the whirl of the city, M progressively succumbs to the conviction that he has recognised the coming Evil, which needs to be confronted.

“Calm in the Canopy tries to capture and cultivate a vague sense of danger. Fears and pathological concerns about unidentified, unknown or even illusory threats permeate the Western culture and society, which, in fact, is afraid of losing its privileged lifestyle. Our goal is to paint the portrait of a lonely man, who succumbs to the terrors which he himself has created. A portrait of a man who, due to his fears about society´s future, alienates himself from the human community”, said Michal Hogenauer in a statement.

The main cast includes Pavel Gajdoš, Judit Bárdos and Michal Isteník.

The film is produced by Simona Kadrnková and Václav Kadrnka through Czech Sirius Films Manual and coproduced by Katarína Krnáčová through Slovak Silverart Film. The Czech TV, HBO and PFX are among the partners.

The project received support of 250,000 EUR from the Czech Film Fund in 2021, as well as 80,000 EUR from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund in 2021. The total budget is 600,000 EUR / 15 m CZK.

The shooting started in October 2021 and wrapped by January 2022. The film was shot in the Czech Republic (Prague, Pardubice), as well as in Slovakia (Bratislava, the Bratislava region).

Michal Hogenauer (1984) studied graphic design and photography, and graduated in film directing from FAMU. His diploma film Tambylles (2012) produced by FAMU was screened in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2015 he co-founded a film educational platform Cinergy Prague organising masterclasses with outstanding film auteurs. A story of a young au pair manipulated by a sect was his feature debut called A Certain Kind of Silence, produced by Negativ (Czech Republic), and coproduced by Circle Films (the Netherlands) and Tasse Film (Latvia). The film premiered at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 2019 and was awarded The Bronze Pyramid for best first work at the Cairo IFF. Michal Hogenauer works as a freelance script consultant and festival programmer.

Production Information:

Producer:
Sirius Films Manual (Czech Republic)
Simona Kadrnková: kadrnkova.simona@gmail.com

Coproducer:
Silverart Film (Slovakia)

Credits:
Director: Michal Hogenauer
Screenplay: Václav Kadrnka, Marek Šindelka
DoP: Šimon Dvořáček
Editing: Michal Reich
Music: Jakub Kudláč
Main cast: Pavel Gajdoš, Judit Bárdos, Michal Isteník

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