A Pint of Ink

Ester Geislerová searches for her father through brushstrokes, at the bottom of a glass, in Tokyo where he once worked, in the memories of his friends, and within the most intimate corners of the family archive.

Ester Geislerová’s distinctive documentary portrait is an intimate journey of a daughter into the inner world of her father, the late Petr Geisler, a renowned Japanologist and calligrapher. Drawing on family archives, personal letters, friends’ recollections, and the striking contrast between the grey reality of communist Czechoslovakia and the vibrant Tokyo of the 1980s, the film gradually assembles a richly layered portrait of a fragile artist. It is a story of human failures and achievements, of the longing for freedom, and of an attempt to capture the fleeting traces of a man of immense charm and Renaissance-like talent who, despite being a father, remained in many ways an enigma to his own family.

The film will celebrate its world premiere in the Special Screenings section of the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.