Jan Hřebejk

Jan Hřebejk at 43rd KVIFF

Jan Hřebejk (Czech pronunciation: [ˈjan ˈɦr̝ɛbɛjk]) (born 27 June 1967 in Prague) is a Czech film director.

Early life and education

Born in Prague, Hřebejk studied together with his classmate Petr Jarchovský at high school. Now Jarchovsky is a frequent collaborator as a screenwriter. From 1987 to 1991, Hřebejk studied screenplay and dramaturgy at FAMU, an arts college in Prague for film and television.

During his FAMU studies, Hřebejk directed and produced two short films, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Experience (1988) and 1948 AD (1989), to a script written by his classmate Petr Zelenka. His professional directorial debut was a short film for Czech TV, You Do Nothing Because You've Got No Good Reason (1991). His films caught the attention of viewers and critics, and entered student film festivals.

Together with Petr Jarchovský, during his FAMU studies, he wrote a comedy screenplay, inspired by his background at a pioneer summer camp, Let's Sing the Song Naked-on. This screenplay was filmed in 1990 as a full-length feature by director Ondřej Trojan and cameraman Asen Šopov.

His 2009 film Kawasaki's Rose was selected as the Czech entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards, but it didn't make the final shortlist.

Filmography

Director

Cinema

• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Experience ("Co všechno chcete vědět o sexu a bojíte se to prožít", 1988") - student movie
• 1948 AD ("L.P. 1948", 1989) - short movie
• You Do Nothing Because You've Got No Good Reason ("Nedělejte nic, pokud k tomu nemáte vážný důvod", 1991) - short movie
• Big Beat ("Šakalí léta", 1993)
• Czech Soda ("Česká soda", 1998)
• Cosy Dens ("Pelíšky", 1999)
• Divided We Fall ("Musíme si pomáhat", 2000)
• Pupendo (2003)
• Up and Down ("Horem pádem", 2004)
• Beauty in Trouble ("Kráska v nesnázích", 2006)
• Teddy Bear (2007 film) ("Medvídek") 2007
• I'm All Good ("U mě dobrý", 2008)
• Nasty ("Nestyda", 2008)
• Kawasaki's Rose ("Kawasakiho růže", 2009)
• Innocence ("Nevinnost", 2011)

Television

• Charity Benefit ("Dobročinný večírek", 1992)
• Czech Soda ("Česká soda", 1993-97) - show, TV-series
• GEN: The Gallery of the Nation's Elite ("GEN: Galerie elity národa", 1993-94) - documentary
  • Vladimír Jiránek by Jan Hřebejk ("Vladimír Jiránek pohledem Jana Hřebejka)
• GENUS ("GENUS", 1995-96) - documentary
  • Michal Viewegh by Jan Hřebejk
  • Vladimír Mišík by Jan Hřebejk
  • Dominik Hašek by Jan Hřebejk
• 60 ("60", 1996) - documentary
• How's the Living ("Jak se žije", 1997) - short documentary, TV-series
• Where Stars Fall ("Kde padají hvězdy", 1996) - TV series
• The Last Concert ("Poslední koncert", 1997)
• The Window ("Okno, 1997) - short
• The Good News ("Dobrá zpráva", 1997)

Theater

• Tomorrow There Will Be... ("Zítra se bude..., 2010) - opera

Actor

• Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Experience ("Co všechno chcete vědět o sexu a bojíte se to prožít", 1988") - student movie
• Whisper ("Šeptej", 1996) as Woody
• Year of the Devil ("Rok ďábla", 1996)
• Amazing Rock'n'roll in the Czech Republic, or Go Jack, go ("Úžasný rokenrol v Čechách aneb Jeď, Honzo, jeď", 2002) as Himself
• The Operation Hockey ("Operace Hokejdo", 2004) as Himself
• The Greatest of the Czechs ("Největší z Čechů", 2010) as předseda grantové komise
• The Freaky Years of the Czech Film ("Rozmarná léta českého filmu", 2011) - documentary, as Himself

Other contributions

• Let's Sing the Song Naked-on ("Pějme píseň dohola", 1990) - writer and narrator

External links

• Jan Hrebejk at the Internet Movie Database
• Šakalí léta at the Internet Movie Database
• Pelíšky at the Internet Movie Database
• Musíme si pomáhat at the Internet Movie Database
• Pupendo at the Internet Movie Database