New Czech Film Tour 2012

As much as Utahns have grown accustomed to the art-film-friendly vibe that accompanies being home to the Sundance Film Festival, it’s still easy to fall into the feeling that we’re somehow a second-tier destination for the kind of films that come to big metropolitan areas. But a traveling collection of films has made Salt Lake City one of only eight stops showcasing the little-seen cinema of the Czech Republic.

Born 12 years ago at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and an annual event ever since, the Czech Films program is making its first journey out to other venues, visiting Los Angeles; Chicago; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and Washington, D.C., as well as Salt Lake City over the course of eight weeks. Salt Lake City’s program will feature six films over four days, beginning Thursday with the 2010 political thriller Walking Too Fast (pictured), the story of a secret-police official in 1982 Czechoslovakia interacting with the anti-Communist dissident movement. Director Radim Špacek is scheduled to be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A session, as well as a pre-film reception for Salt Lake Film Society members only.

The program continues Friday through Sunday with Four Suns, the story of an immature man raising his adolescent son; Leaving, Václav Havel’s adaptation of his own tragic-comic play; Identity Card, a coming-of-age comedy set in 1970s Czechoslovakia; Long Live the Family, a drama about a bank manager contemplating whether to cooperate with a fraud investigation; and Matchmaking Mayor, a documentary about a dying town and its hands-on mayor. (Scott Renshaw)