Daniel is an odd guy who lives with his endlessly quarrelling parents uncomplaining about his destiny. He keeps a distance from other people, he has no friends, nobody understands him, he is different. He will be turning nineteen and the last thing he would spend his time on is a preparation for his approaching graduation.
Adam is his class teacher. He is gay who lives in a relationship with his younger partner David and his strictly guarded secret keeps locked behind a door of their apartment.
Daniel and Adam live in their own bubbles until a moment when they both happen to be together in life threat. Lost in the darkness, cut off from the rest of the world, they are both looking for a way out. How far will they be willing to go?
Where Butterflies Don't Fly is the name of the feature film based on the original screenplay by Roman Němec. The story, unique in its theme and environment, begins in the quiet Czech town of Kadaň. However, when the main characters are accidentally caught in an unknown, mysterious, but also insidious space of a vast cave system, the story quickly becomes dramatic.
Daniel Krejčík
Daniel
Jiří Vojta
Adam
Jakub Krejča
David (Adam's partner)
Jaroslav Dušek
The school head
Simona Babčáková
Teacher Stehlíková
Klára Melíšková
Daniel's mother
Martin Myšička
Daniel's father
Anna Fixová
Teacher Zavadilová
Screenwriter, director: Roman Němec
Script editor: Martin Bezouška
Directors of photography: Peter Beňa, Vojtěch Hrnčíř, Karel Pobříslo
Sound designer: Martin Jiránek
Camera assistants: Jakub Babica, Martin Dvořáček, Adam Roul, Štěpán Uždil
Music composer: Tomáš Oliva
The film 'Where Butterflies Don't Fly' is currently available on the following streaming services. The film may not be available in some countries.
Frameline46 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival
California, USA
Official Selection
Nominee Jury Prize
Outstanding First Feature (Roman Němec)
FilmOut San Diego
California, USA
Official Selection
FilmOut Programming Award
Outstanding Artistic Achievement
Cinema Diverse Palm Springs
California, USA
Official Selection
Director's Choice Award
Cinema Diverse Palm Springs
California, USA
Official Selection
Festival Favorite Award
Out on Film Festival Atlanta
Georgia, USA
Official Selection
Desperado Film Festival Phoenix
Arizona, USA
Official Selection
ImageOut: Rochester LGBT Film Festival
New York, USA
Official Selection
Pride Film Fest Chicago
Illinois, USA
Official Selection
Best of the Fest Award
TVLFest - The Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival
Israel
Official Selection
Melbourne Queer Film Festival
Australia
Official Selection
Mardi Gras Film Festival Sydney
Australia
Official Selection
Geelong Pride Film Festival
Australia
Official Selection
Festival Internacional de Cine LGBTIQ+ de Madrid
Spain
Official Selection
International Queer Film Festival Playa del Carmen
Mexico
Official Selection
Best International Film
Best Actor (Daniel Krejčík)
International Diversity Film Festival Los Angeles
California, USA
Best Feature Film
International Cosmopolitan Film Festival of Tokyo
Japan
Best Feature Film on Diversity
Roze Filmdagen Amsterdam
Netherlands
Official Selection
The 'Butterflies' are doing well in Slovakia. We received a warm welcome in Bratislava and our film had a great audience at the Slovak Queer Film Festival on November 26, 2022.
On Wednesday, November 2, 2022, the film Where Butterflies Don't Fly had its Israeli premiere at the TLVFest film festival in Tel Aviv. Thanks to the support of the Tel Aviv Czech Center, director Roman Němec and actor Jakub Krejča were personally attended.
The international premiere of the movie Where Butterflies Don't Fly took place at the 46th Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco on June 19, 2022, with the participation of the film's director Roman Němec and cinematographer Vojtěch Hrnčíř. The screening was moderated by film, television and theater producer Peter Stein.
Gala premiere of the film Where Butterflies Don't Fly in the Lucerna Cinema in Prague, May 16, 2022.
We released the first official trailer of the movie Where Butterflies Don’t Fly. And here are a couple of curiosities.
At the end of March our movie left the cutting room in its 130-minute version and moved forward to the postproduction phase.
One year ago, when we discussed the locations for our movie, we stumbled upon a fundamental technical problem – how to create a large cave-in. For our filming we chose Štola n. 1 Jáchymov, but it was not possible to realize such a massive cave-in. In the end it turned out that the easiest solution will be building the same drift in a different place.
The story of our lost heroes ends in an old drift tunnel. For filming we chose the Jáchymovská Štola n. 1 mainly because there is a functional mine railway with mine cart.
A week before our planned autumnal filming in the caves our main location, Sloupsko-šošůvské caves, got flooded. In a hurry we had to plan everything again and temporarily move to Kateřinská cave. In the meantime the Cave Administration of the Czech Republic with the help of the firefighters and many volunteers was disposing of the consequences of the flash flood in Sloup.
The filming of the underwater scene. We arrive to the location, build the set, and get Jiří Vojta dressed into a costume which has a lead belt added to it. Just one more detail though. “Please, lend our cameraman, Vojta, some equipment so that he can stay under the water for a longer time,” I ask the divers. “But I have never been diving before,” says Vojtěch Hrnčíř. “It is not about diving really, I just need you to be able to stay under the water for a few minutes and film the scene without coming up to the surface, “I explain. Everyone is watching me with puzzled expressions in their faces. “Alright then,” says one of the divers and takes Vojta away. They give him a wetsuit, put an oxygen tank on his back and in an hour he goes through a crash course in diving.
Mysterious, eerie, surrounded with an immense number of myths and tales. The Bull Rock Cave. We were the first ones who were filming in such depth in these caves.
Everybody discouraged me from filming in hard-to-access caves. It meant a lot of technical problems and, of course, discomfort. Nevertheless, I did not want to give up on the idea of filming a part of our movie in these caves since Olomouc cave and Javoříčské caves completely mesmerized me. So I put together a minimized film crew with a complete speleological equipment, invited local speleologists to help us organize the logistics of filming and then we dismantled our equipment, put it in waterproof barrels so that we could transport it even through the narrowest underground passages.
Basketball falls into the group of the most photogenic sports. Especially when performed by our actors. And actually it does not matter that it is given by the screenplay who wins the ball during the tip-off, who loses the ball, who scores the winning basket and which team wins the game – in fact, the cameraman is the one who goes through the biggest tension, because he is the one who has to stand still and keep filming even when the ball is flying right towards him.
Going to school even during holidays, riding on the bus round and round for the whole day, swimming in ice-cold water on a trip pretending it is a hot day, shuffling around in the middle of a forest on a chilly night. These are the delights of our student actors. Even after this experience, saying goodbye to our project at our final party did not do without tears.
Both of our starring actors do all the falling in our movie themselves - without any stuntmen, green screen, mats or padding.
Look behind the scenes of the feature film Where Butterflies Don't Fly. In a short video you will also hear what the actors in the leading roles Daniel Krejčík and Jiří Vojta think about their characters.
In order for the actors to experience what it takes to stay in the caves, Daniel Krejcik and Jiri Vojta set out with Martin Koudelka, the administrator of the Javoříčské Caves, to the Olomouc Dome.
In the film Where Butterflies Don't Fly, a number of prominent Czech actors will appear.
The story of Where Butterflies Don't Fly is largely set in a huge cave complex. The labyrinths of intricate corridors, large domes, deep abysses, lake and watercourses. We will shoot in the real space of five Moravian cave systems. We cooperate with Czech speleologists, the Cave Administration of the Czech Republic and the Mining Museum in Sokolov.
