Lajka

Laika

This Czech puppet animation takes a wry, cynical look at the early days of the Soviet space program as viewed by Laika, the first living creature shot into space. In 1957, Laika became a world-renowed, heroic-cutesy figure - until children asked their parents when she’d be coming home, and the Russian space agency had to admit that she’d been sent on a suicide mission. This isn’t the first fiction to imagine a happier outcome for Laika and her animal comrades, but it is quite probably the strangest. It’s so heroically unsuitable for children that many kids will love it, even if they don’t get all the perverse alien sex jokes. (Kim Newman)

Director's Biography
Aurel Klimt 
Aurel Klimt was born in Žilina in Slovakia in 1972. He graduated from the animation department of FAMU in Prague in 1999 and has been teaching there since. In 2000 he founded Zvon Studio in Malešov, and started writing, producing, animating and editing his own films. His latest feature “Laika” (2017) was awarded with the Czech Lion. Aurel Klimt also writes theatre plays and produces commercials.

Film Selection: Lajka (Laika, 2017) - Hrbáci z Damasku, Segment of Fimfárum II (Filmfarum II, 2006, omnibus film) - Fimfárum, Franta Nebojsa, Segment of Fimfárum Jana Wericha (Filmfarum, 2002, omnibus film) - Krvavý Hugo (Bloody Hugo, 1998, short) - Maskin zabil Koskina (Maskin Kills Koskin, 1996, short)
European Panorama Fiction 2019
Aurel Klimt
Czech Republic 2017
3D, color
88 minutes
Czech
OV with English subtitles
Screenplay Aurel Klimt
Cinematography Radek Loukota
Editing Aurel Klimt
Sound/Sounddesign Marek Musil
Music Marek Doubrava, Josef Čermák
With Jan Budar, Petr Ctvrtnícek, Helena Dvoráková, Miroslav Táborský, Jan Vondrácek, Karel Zima
Producer(s) Aurel Klimt
Production
Studio ZVON, Universal Production Partners, Studio Bystrouška, Česká televize
World Sales
Studio ZVON
Austrian Premiere
World Premiere
Festival Premiere: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2018
Festival Premiere
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2018

Premierenstatus / Premiere Status
Austrian Premiere