Jakub Sommer was born in Prague in 1976 and graduated from the Department of Documentary Film at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) in 2004. There he made both cheerful and sad films, receiving altogether 26 awards at Czech as well as international film festivals. Two of his school films entered Czech theatrical distribution as introduction films. His very first film, documentary Život na hřbitově/ Life at the Cemetery (1997) depicts the peculiar life behind the cemetery wall where three of the cemetery visitors meet. ELFilm (2001), an autobiographical story of an unusual love, is his first short feature film. Maj Kompjutr (2002), the story of three friends: a director, a violin player and a sex shop owner who share their computer addiction, is his graduation film.
Among his further documentary films, let us name a chapter from the GEN documentary series about ski acrobat Aleš Valenta (2002), the visual film Praha kulturní/Cultural Prague 2004) or two musical documentaries from the Pandurango cycle (2006). From 2006 on, he has been making primarily feature films (the television film Stop in 2007) and is preparing his feature- length film debut.
As cameraman, he made thirteen documentary films with director Olga Sommerová, among others World’s End at the Heart of Europe/ Konec světa v srdci Evropy (2002) and Máňa Ten Years After/ Máňa po deseti letech (2003); together with director Igor Chaun, he made the documentaries Beauty and the Beast/ Kráska a zvíře (2003) and The Hockey Opera/ Opera Hokejdo (2004).
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