April 4, 2025

Aleš Stuchlý's film marathon at the 32nd DEF.

When he says healing screenings, he means it. Aleš Stuchlý, an uncompromising film critic, host of the cult podcast Jaws and the main psychosomatician of the Czech film scene, has been curating the Mental Hygiene block for the fifth year now — a series of films with an afterword so penetrating that it could be prescribed on a prescription.

At the 32nd European Film Days, Mental Hygiene grew into a five-day marathon at its birthplace, Edison Filmhub: from Michel Gondry's Friday music videos with DJ party to the British Birds with Martin Pleštil to Mike Leigh's raw Harsh Truths with guest Vít Schmarec.

There are also foreign guests from afar — Romanian director Bogdan Mureşanu (The New Year That Didn't Come) and Lithuanian director Saulė Bliuvaitė (TOXIC) connected via Zoom to a hall full of questions and thoughts.

Mental hygiene is not just watching films and discussing them. It is a sudden cleansing of the mind, a shared catharsis, and proof that cinema can also function as group therapy. And judging by the participation, there is an increasing interest in it.

Dates and details HERE.