The visual artist and animator Julie Černá was born in the small town of Strážnice in the southern Moravian region of the Czech Republic. She is currently taking a master’s degree at the Animation and Film Studio of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. During her studies, she has created three animated music videos which have screened at international animation festivals. She also has a passion for illustration and comics. Her comic-book trilogy “The Stone of Destiny” won the 2022 Muriel Award for Best Student Comic. Her work explores the melancholy hidden within every experience of happiness.
What was your starting point for „Kámen Osudu“?
It’s based on my comic trilogy of the same name, which I completed as a school assignment in 2022. Everything revolves around the main character Stone of Destiny (Czech: Kámen Osudu), who serves as my alter ego and is my long-term project. I started drawing Stone of Destiny around 2020, when I moved from the countryside in the south-east of the Czech Republic to Prague. It was a big change for me and I experienced a lot of new feelings and sensations – good and bad. I drew my experiences with the character of Stone in short comic or illustration form. That helped me get comfortable with the feelings by putting them on paper.
Do you have a favorite moment in the film? Which one and why this one in particular?
My favorite part of the film is when Stone is shown his new coastal villa where he has now settled. He looks very happy and takes the audience through all the rooms of the villa. It’s funny because he has decorated his rooms very impractically – there’s a room with paintings of the sky, another with just tree saplings, and also a huge room with only a few pieces of furniture. Because of all these irrational furnishing decisions, there’s no space left, and Stone of Destiny has to sleep on a bed that’s in the hallway. I feel that this moment of the movie reflects the mood I wanted to achieve with the film – the omnipresent melancholy that hides behind the feelings of happiness.
What do you like about the short form?
I like that it makes me think about a story I want to tell in the context of time.
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INTERVIEWS
„C’est venu naturellement, j’ai dessiné ce que je ressentais. L’univers de Stone of Destiny est vaste, mais il a des règles visuelles spécifiques qui ont émergé inconsciemment au cours du processus de création. Le style d’animation lui-même est très subtil et ressemble à de l’action réelle, ce qui correspond bien au cadre surréaliste et à la conception des personnages.“
Interview with Julie Černá for Le Polyester
PRESS REVIEWS
„With David Hockney-esque colours, bedroom pop music and a willingness to embrace the weird, Černá’s bachelor film at UMPRUM University in Prague is a beguiling and oddly entertaining experience, replete with strange demons, beautiful horses, empty fields and Bojack-like beachside houses, following Destiny as she tries to see more of the world, or something.“
review by Redmond Bacon for Journey into Cinema
„C’est l’adorable ovni de cette édition – Stone of Destiny raconte les péripéties d’un petit caillou chantant. Cette pierre semble être atteinte d’une certaine mélancolie mais sa ritournelle est insouciante. Le trait enfantin et les blocs de couleurs ont quelque chose de naïf, mais cela ne limite pas l’imaginaire ambitieux de cette captivante pépite, qui figurait en compétition.“
review by Nicolas Bardot & Gregory Coutaut for Le Polyester
„Regisseurin und Autorin Julie Černá, die hiermit ihre eigene Graphic Novel adaptiert, setzt bei der Umsetzung zudem auf prägnante Farben und Popmusik, was die Reise zu einem psychedelischen Trip werden lässt. Wobei hinter dieser freundlichen Fassade auch immer wieder Abgründe zu sehen oder zumindest zu erahnen sind. Da geht es um Versagensängste, um innere Dämonen. Der Stein ist dann eben doch kein Stein, sondern sehr menschlich.“
review by Oliver Armknecht for filmrezensionen.de
„The selection is rounded off by a number of animations, including the […] spikily fun yet moving animated musical Stone of Destiny and the sensual evocation of the everyday Ordinary Life.“
mention by Laurence Boyce for Cineuropa
„Die Berlinale Shorts bleiben jedoch vor allem eins: vielfältig. In Kámen Osudu singt ein Stein auf Tschechisch über Selbstverwirklichung und Versagensängste, im Animationsfilm Futsu no seikatsu stehen die Wiederholungen des Alltags im Vordergrund, und in Anba dlo die Trauer um den Verlust eines geliebten Menschen.“
mention by Peter Bratenstein for zeitgeschichte online
„Bei den Berlinale Shorts wird der Film „Kámen Osudu“ („Stone of Destiny“) der tschechischen Künstlerin Julie Černá Premiere haben.“
mention by Radio Prague International
reactions on letterboxd
Berlinale Shorts 