David Bonaventura

Just as good music can be played by a large symphony orchestra or a single blues musician with an old guitar, a good film can be made by large production companies or at minimal cost. Cameraman Martin Duba chose the latter path. He took his wife, children, animals, and friends, and together they shot a pleasant feature film on a literally family budget. Martin Duba's family plays Mr. Kuba's family, and their friends play their friends. The Kubas live on a farm during the summer, where they run a pub and breed horses. The father is an entrepreneur, but he is clearly not doing well. The farm is falling into disrepair. It is only with the arrival of the mysterious young man František that everything takes a turn for the better, and the story continues in an atmosphere that allows for miracles every day.

This documentary-style story tells the story of an aspiring documentary filmmaker who is preparing a film about the history of glassmaking. He is honestly gathering information, slowly getting closer to an unknown and not always accessible environment, to people, whose actions he often doesn't understand because he misses their motivations... Shards for Eva is certainly not a skillfully wrought work, but it certainly impresses with its sense of at least partial capture of everyday reality.

Due to suspicion of BSE (mad cow disease), a herd of cows from a small farmstead is sentenced to be killed. The animals' revolt and try to escape. People try to hunt them down but the herd, led by Bella, manages to protect itself. Further failures of people increase their aggressiveness. The escalating battle has little in common with the original veterinary prevention. However, there are also people who try to help the cows, who desire nothing more than free life in the great outdoors, even if they are also forced to learn how to live and survive without anybody to feed them, milk them or fill them up with medicine. They learn all about hunger, cold, deprivation and pain. And the loss of loved ones...