The Naked was on German Radio’s list (Deutschlandfunk-Liste) of the seven best books for young readers (August 2008), was nominated for the 2009 German Youth Literature Prize (Der deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis) and was awarded the most prestigious Czech prize for literature, the Magnesia Litera, in 2010.

 

Father to Sylva (17):

“Growing up is a strange condition. You’re naked.  Directly affected

by everything – it’s exciting and painful at the same time.

Can’t be repeated and is gone in the snap of a finger.  All too short…”

 

The Naked (a screenplay based on the novel of the same name by Iva Prochazkova) tells of the tightrope walk across the canyon of adolescence. Approaching adulthood one has to pay for each and every step. Some a bit more, some less, and some never reach the goal. The journey into the unknown takes stamina, it pushes emotions to their limits, with tensions, longings, and desires. Fear is often mixed with humor, and the search for truth and knowledge is often accompanied by the magic of the serendipitous.  

A hot summer, Berlin, the Czech city Usti nad Labem, and the tamed landscape of the Czech-German borderland – this is the backdrop for our story.  Five young people – each in their own way – have reached crossroads, and they are forced to decide how to continue their lives.  Their paths sometimes cross, occasionally run parallel or simply pass hardly noticing one another. Without realizing it, they are asking themselves the same questions, solving identical problems. Actually, there are five individual stories that only make sense taken as a whole. They make a statement about a single theme: Europe’s young generation.

 

 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 28. 11. 2008

The author follows her characters around with a highly sensitive camera chronicling what it is that gets under their skin. Whether it’s the sensuality with which Sylva observes nature; the searing, all-pervasive heat; Niklas, nervously tracking Evita’s heartbeat under her ribs; or the story of Evita’s trips – dreams of longing, clustered around the theme of unattainability that characterizes the girl’s life.        

                                  

The Naked – a colorful gamut of the maturing emotions of today’s 17/18-year-olds, whose attitudes sometimes merge into revolt or tragedy.

 

Sylva, highly gifted, finds school boring and is most at home in the natural world.

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Niklas has a predilection for film making, but is led astray to drugs by the beautiful Evita in the search for absolute happiness through ever wilder trips.

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Filip is in love but his own intellectual style hinders him. Then he meets a wonderful girl, and cannot be stopped.

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Robin  has a dominating father and hides away reclusively. Then he meets Sylva and they do something completely crazy.