‘Our Lovely Pig Slaughter’ Director Immerses His Characters in Bloody, Honored Tradition

variety.com:

Will Tizard Contributor Czech writer-director Adam Martinec has taken on a near-sacred Bohemian ritual in his Karlovy Vary Film Festival Official Competition world premiere “Our Lovely Pig Slaughter.”The annual rendering of the film’s title, known in Czech as a zabijacka, dates back at least to the Middle Ages and has parallels in many other lands – but what fascinated Martinec about the event, he says, was the rich assortment of characters necessary to pull it off.Most of the men gathered for the winter killing of a Moravian family’s pig reflect the director himself, he adds.“Partly it was the bizarre setup of pig slaughter itself,” Martinec explains of his fascination.

But his real interest in the strange but familial gathering, he says, was “secretly because I needed to confront myself with a picture of myself as a total idiot.

Every negative person onscreen is inspired by me and by studying such individuals and their actions, I am teaching myself a lesson.

I think that loneliness is very dangerous and I am scared of ending up alone in the same way the leading character is.”Indeed, the film’s beleaguered master of ceremonies, Karel – played by Martinec’s father, Karel – does not get much sympathy from those gathered at the family farm for the killing and inevitable feast to follow.