Overcast weather is perfect for a trip? Not for tourists, maybe, but clouds provided a welcome dramatic backdrop during a recent location tour. The Moravian-Silesian Film Office, together with the Czech Film Commission, held a two-day location tour in the region this October and, as seen in the photos, the weather favored the filmmakers.
Filmmakers could admire the mason work in Hradec nad Moravicí and the Vítkovice Workers' Colony in Ostrava. | Photo: Daniel Suhay
“We tried to showcase the best of the region, with an emphasis on the less well-known industrial, folk architecture and brick buildings of the first half of the 20th century,” says Hana Vitkova of the Moravian-Silesian Film Office z Moravian-Silesian Film Office. “Visits to two golf courses were included in the program. The first, in Čeladná, features the Miura Hotel, whose simple concrete interiors, offset by original pieces of modern and contemporary art, represented by Andy Warhol and David Černý, among others, fulfils filmmakers’ frequent demand for pure architecture without flourishes. The second, the Lipina golf course near Karviná, is unique in the world thanks to the industrial landscape in which it is set. Monumental mining work between the two active shafts of OKD and Pol-Alpex set the scene.”
Filmmakers also had the opportunity to view the picturesque town of Štramberk, which the Czech Film Commission featured in its regular location of the month column this past August. During an otherwise busy afternoon, participants found time to stroll through charming lanes flanked by historic family homes; yet, even in the gloomy weather they were friendly, with flowerboxes in the windows of most of them, reminiscent more of Austrian villages than the Czech countryside.
One stops on the local tour was the Leoš Janáček Airport in Ostrava – Mošnov, the dominant feature of which is the new departure hall, resplendent with steel and glass walls. An important element is also the train station directly adjacent to the departure hall. It is active only in the summer, so for the rest of the year it is another suitable place to shoot.
Among the other places visited was the Žofie mine, the closed Karviná mine Gabriela, the historic town of Nový Jičín, and the once magnificent, now dilapidated Grossmann villa in Ostrava. Also on the tour were among the newest towns in the Czech Republic – Havířov and the Ostrava district of Poruba, which boasts preserved Social Realist architectural gems.
More photos below and in the Locations section >
