We Have Never Been Modern

Shot in luxurious 35mm, Matěj Chlupáček’s taut thriller concerns nothing less than the tension between tradition versus progress. It’s 1937 Czechoslovakia, and when a factory owner’s wife discovers the body of a stillborn intersex baby, she takes the investigation into her own hands against a bigoted police force.Set in Czechoslovakia in the years right before the German invasion, WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN weaves a complex and timely mystery around themes of industrialization, the slow rise of fascism, and fear of the other. Pregnant Helena lives with her husband Alois in the rapidly developed town of Svit, where Alois runs the factory that fuels its economy. One day the body of an intersex infant is found on the factory grounds. Whispers spread and blame is quickly assigned in order to close the case. Helena is the only one who seeks the truth, and the answer may lie in a male-identifying outcast from the factory. WE HAVE NEVER BEEN MODERN looks to recent history to tackle modern human themes of conformity and economic expansion, viewing them all through a deeply humane lens. —C.F.