Vojtĕch Strakatý’s After Party is a personal drama that doesn’t bog itself down with details, almost to the point of being a detriment to encouraging audience connection.
Writer-Director: Vojtěch Strakatý
Genre: Family Drama
Run Time: 89′
Venice World Premiere: September 5, 2024
Release Date: TBA
As writer and director, Vojtĕch Strakatý based the premise of After Party on his experiences with his own family. What followed was a lengthy writing process, as revealed in a Q&A after its Venice premiere, which saw him develop the film and shape it through a character whose perspective mirrored his own. It’s a film that clearly means a lot to him, but suffers from being a little too clinical with regards to the details.
After getting home at dawn from a night of drinking, Jindřiška (Eliška Bašusová) wakes to find bailiffs removing all the valuables from the home she shares with her parents, thanks to the serious debts racked up by her father (Jan Zadražil). Over the course of the next 24 hours, Jindřiška’s entire world falls apart, and she must decide whether to help him or concentrate on her own future.
With it being such a personal story for Strakatý, it makes sense that the film is hyper focused on Jindřiška. Cinematographer Stanislav Adam’s camera barely moves away from her for the duration of the film, but thankfully Bašusová has presence enough to cope under its scrutiny. She offers a layered performance, at times naïve and at times surprisingly mature, as Jindřiška is but a hungover young woman watching everything she’s ever known crumble around her.
It feels like the message to be taken from After Party is twofold. First is that when family lets you down, you can always count on your friends to be there for you. And secondly, that there’s an expectation from the older generation that their problems will happily be solved by a younger one. Jindřiška’s father barely even asks if she will help him, he simply assumes. He seemingly makes decisions for her without considering the implications they will have on her future, and barely gives her a chance to argue or refuse them.
But Kajá (Anna Tomanová), her best friend, goes out of her way to help Jindřiška consistently. Whether it’s driving her around, carrying heavy furniture, lying for her, or simply just encouraging Jindřiška to have fun, theirs is a close friendship that feels authentic and sweet. It’s in these interactions when After Party is at its lightest, when it sparks and shows off the charm that these actresses clearly inhabit. But it’s in the more serious parts that the film struggles a little.
The film was shot over the course of just 14 days, and there’s a real sense of that condensed time frame present within the film itself. At a Q&A after the premiere, Tomanová described Strakatý as being a “very economical” director, and that’s an accurate way of describing After Party in general. There’s very little fat here, with everything taking place over such a specific time frame and only a few instances where it feels like the characters are given room to breathe. It’s not necessarily that the film feels rushed, but rather than it’s sticking to everything it absolutely needs to and not bothering with extraneous details.
But it’s in the details that the audience is often able to find connection, and so the film doesn’t really offer a decent chance for us to do that. It feels like Strakatý is exploring serious – and incredibly personal – topics on merely a surface level, simply presenting the narrative as something that happened and not something to be delved into in any great detail. And that’s a shame, because there’s an interesting story and message here, it just doesn’t feel developed enough. The ending is a prime example, with the Q&A also offering Strakatý the chance to explain that there were different versions of it written, but that they all felt a little too predictable or obvious. However, the one that is featured, might feel unsatisfying for some.
After Party is a film that’s clearly incredibly personal to its writer/director, embraced by its cast, but ultimately a little too undercooked to have the impact it could have. There’s an interesting premise and a potentially poignant message, but the film is so slimmed down that it doesn’t really do anything with either.
After Party had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2024. Read our list of films to watch at the 2024 Venice Film Festival!
