INPUT / … / … / Strong individuals – moving stories

Contemporary television drama is struggling for survival: the national resources run dry – all the money is going to mini-series, soap operas and co-productions with the cinema: competition is fierce. It all ends up in a strange tension between Euro-productions and American originals / spoofs. It seems as if here is hardly anymore space for the original script which is a contemporary reflection, a modest approach to telling the story within a certain national / regional frame of reference. Our session shows two examples of story-telling, one form Ireland and one from Czechoslovakia. Both stories concentrate very much on strong individuals, struggling in their everyday life. There is politics intruding into an average Belfast family, dramatically changing it all for Sarah, the mother (“How can they do this to an innocent family?”). There’s the last summer of an anarchistic old man who’s living on a farm. There’s drama, humor, poetry. Both samples show outstanding actors – pulling along films which have their limits but beautifully manage to t-a-l-k to the audience.