At a time when the young generation is rediscovering the legacy of the ‘Czechoslovak Tom Jones’ outside the context of his heyday, Peter Bebjak (The Line, Nineties) presents a stirring portrait proving that the concepts ‘auteur cinema’ and big audience can coexist in a single, highly appealing endeavour.
Ahead of Duchon’s Australian debut, CaSFFA Artistic Director Alexander Back spoke to the director.
What is your earliest memory of Karol Duchoň?
Peter Bebjak: I have a personal experience with Karol Duchoň — in 1982, when I was a 12-year-old boy, I was the one who had to tell him that not a single ticket had been sold for his concert that day in my home village. Back then, I would never have imagined that 43 years later I’d be premiering a film about his life at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. During my teenage years, I had different musical idols, but about 15 years ago came a time when I rediscovered Duchoň and found in him a kind of “nostalgic charm.”
What interested you as a filmmaker? I read that the starting point was the theatre play The Earth Remembers. Was that what first drew you in?
Peter Bebjak: For some time, we’d been looking for the right way to approach his story, and we were struck by the concept we saw in the Slovak Chamber Theatre in Martin’s production The Earth Remembers. We really liked its music-video-like style of storytelling — a fast journey through Duchoň’s life.
You’ve described Duchoň as a kind of “musical film”. Could you expand on what you mean by that? You say the film is built from existing songs, but I also feel something more abstract at play.
Peter Bebjak: A “musical film” in the sense that the songs are not just presented as a showcase of the singer’s work, but also serve as a foundation for retelling various stages of his life. Through this approach, we move into a certain stylization that we found the most interesting — because it also allowed us to present the aesthetics of the era in which Duchoň’s story unfolds.
Did you ever have to balance what was true with what might appeal to the audience? And on the other hand, were there moments that were both true and compelling but that you chose to omit because they didn’t serve the story?
Peter Bebjak: No — it was important for us to touch on every life situation, social theme, and personal decision that we considered essential. These decisions always affect the individual, their loved ones, and society — whether positively or negatively.
What advice would you give to filmmakers who are setting out to make a biographical film?
Have respect, but not excessive reverence — maintain distance and perspective. Find what is human, and that means both the positive and the negative, because that’s what we are.
Duchon screens on Friday, Oct 17th, 6.30pm at Lido Cinemas, Hawthorn.