Biography

[on Vera Chytilová] She's bonkers, that's clear, but I really appreciate her ability to grasp what's around and to find great metaphors for social issues.

[on Perfect Days - I zeny maji sve dny (2011)] I was offered to direct the play at the Na zábradlí theatre and at that time it seemed a kind of new subject. When I was young, women over 40 were... practically dead. The times are changing and women over 40 are not dead any more, but they're still not used to the new situation. So it seemed like a new theme. I like new themes. There are other new themes in it: the question of gay people and their relationship to parenthood; people who are successful in their work but still that's not enough for happiness. When the producer Rudolf Biermann came with the idea to put it in a film, I said yes, because it gave me the opportunity to try to give it a different visual code and try to explore it one more time with a ten-year gap, which brought the theme to a different level.

[on main topics of her films] We do, mostly, live in couples. It seems such a big part of our lives that any story you tell kind of touches on it. You are somebody's kid. At a certain age you decide whether or not you're going to be a parent. And through your life you look for a partner, and you might find one, you might not. No matter how I look at life, it always comes to this.