We went all the way back to the Middle Ages during our talk with director, screenwriter, producer, and storyteller Marek Dobeš while also touching on various social topics and elucidating in detail what it means to be an independent filmmaker. But also why he, as a predominantly sci-fi writer, decided to write a sequel to Jaroslav Hašek's “The Good Soldier Švejk”.
What was it that made you start creating new stories for Švejk, then?
I've always wanted to do humor, and I started writing comedic, mostly horror stories in school. I wanted to entertain people, so I would pretend to fall from my chair during class to entertain them through physical acts as well. After the attack on the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015, which was directed solely at Jews, I realized that my fellow humorists were being murdered and that I needed to stop being ashamed of expressing my opinion, even though it could hurt me. I was one of the few Czech artists to start publicly speaking out against mass migration. I claim that Czechs are one of the most interesting nations in the world, and I am utterly opposed to demographic change in our country. I want to be Czech, I want to live in a traditional Czech environment, which means managing migration, among other things. We can take a different approach to different matters. I started making fun of all the pro-migration and progressivist ideas being thrown around. And that's when I realized that Jaroslav Hašek is kind of a colleague of mine. During his time, he was a rebel, a firebrand, who poked fun at the foreign ruling class. That's where we align.
What are the stories that you write to propel this famous tale forward like?
Before I even realized how close I was to Jaroslav Hašek, I wrote an array of, you could say “Hašekesque” short stories. They take place in a world where Donald Trump becomes emperor. So far, there have been two editions, and I came up with a new character for the third – Fluid Druid, a trans-something who decides to identify as an infantry fighting vehicle before heading out to deal with the war in Ukraine. I won't divulge the full story, but I'm convinced that Fluid Druid has a lot of potential as a character. I am continuing Hašek's work but in my own way. I imbue these stories with topics that I, or rather we Czechs and Europeans in general, find interesting. The Švejk sequels might be a bit audacious, but on the other hand, I have written so many comedic and satirical stories that I can't think of anyone better suited to the task right now. Several publishers have shown interest, and we're currently in talks about an official release.
I understand that writing is in your blood given your journalism degree, but how did you come to be a director and producer?
When I was studying journalism after the Revolution, I started writing about film. I got into various movie magazines; I wrote for the Karlovy Vary IFF festival journal, and I was just heading in that direction in general. Then, I was approached by a guy from Gamera, a collective of independent amateur filmmakers, who found my writing rather funny. That led to me making the short movie I Was a Teenage Intellectual. The movie's success was the impulse that led me to give up journalism and get into filmmaking full-time. I started cooperating with Štěpán Kopřiva and Jiří Pavlovský at the time, and we followed up with the show called Místo nahoře on Czech Television. That's what helped us make our first million, which we then invested in the movie Choking Hazard.
From the new movie The Devil's Signature.
An original zombie flick...
We were the first ones to do a zombie comedy, and we paid the price. The movie didn't see a lot of box office success, but its global premiere happened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Choking Hazard, same as Místo nahoře, had a deeper meaning – this time, it was about finding purpose in life. In my opinion, this is one of the few times when the Czech Republic followed the current trends in the movie industry. We tend to lag five to ten years behind, which isn't always a bad thing. At least it helps us avoid any progressivist delusions. One thing that makes me happy about Choking Hazard is that it was shown on Netflix and even on Czech Television now, twenty years later, and it's even available on the iVysílání service. It is still significant all these years later. That's an amazing feeling.
You're just finishing the movie The Devil's Signature. What's it about?
It's my second feature film, and it's a dark comedy that puts forth the topics of national pride, patriotism. I make a little fun of certain phony patriots and the ways they express their patriotism, the same way I made fun of intellectuals back in the day. But I'm not mocking them. I appreciate everyone who is a true patriot and, as such, does something for our country. Such people can be rightfully proud. But people spewing empty talk about what could or should be done leads nowhere. My views on church restitutions are also reflected in the movie. Not that I'm opposed to them, per se, but I feel that they have reached disproportionate levels, which I believe has been achieved through false argumentation.
How do you finance a movie like that?
The Devil's Signature is an entirely independent movie. It's the kind of movie that no public institution or even television company wants to fund. That's why I have forbidden myself from even thinking of approaching any of the official institutions for money since the very beginning – and I have been working on the movie for ten years now. Such funding could have an influence on me; my work would be subject to self-censorship. I only applied for distribution funding now, and I also started a crowdfunding campaign to get some money that could go into marketing.
How do you feel about the movie?
It's good. At least based on the reactions of people who have tested it. They knew nothing about the movie ahead of time, but they ended up having deep discussions about the topics it presented after the showing. I still have to do audio post-production, get some marketing money to have at least a few posters around town, and then there's distribution work. It premieres on October 1st in Kino Lucerna, the mecca of Czech film, where it was also partially filmed.
You have written numerous movie and TV screenplays, but I hear that there are a dozen more that you've shelved...
I was commissioned to write the screenplay for the movie Kajínek, for instance; I even came up with the original screenplay for Jan Žižka (Medieval), which Petr Jákl then sot of “wrested” away from me and Americanized, and the end result was a sad reflection of that. I've been writing stuff that ended up on the shelf since way back when my colleagues and I were working on other projects, and they are also pieces that go against the flow. One apt example – the screenplay for a movie called Adolf Hitler Hates Disco, which Štěpán Kopřiva and I invested half a million crowns into, only to realize that there's no way to finance a movie like that. We were too far ahead, we came up with it before Der Untergang (Downfall) was even filmed.
CV BOX
Marek Dobeš (born February 14, 1971, in Prague) is a director, screenwriter, author, and producer.
He graduated in journalism from the Charles University Faculty of Social Sciences. His career in journalism led him to film-oriented magazines (Cinema, Kino, Kinorevue, and others), he was the editor of the TV show Kinobox, and he did interviews with Czech and international celebrities (such as David Lynch, Rutger Hauer, Salma Hayek, Chuck Norris, David Bowie, and Alice Cooper).
His screenwriting and directing debut was the short movie I Was a Teenage Intellectual. He has written a number of movie, TV, and documentary screenplays. His producing resume includes the movies Choking Hazard and The Devil's Signature. He has also appeared in front of the camera in various TV shows and has written numerous sci-fi short stories.
Dobeš lives in Prague, is divorced, and has a son.
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