Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, 2021, 81'
In Czech and Dari with English and Slovenian subtitles

When Herra, a Czech woman, falls in love with Nazir, an Afghan man, she has no idea about the life that awaits her in post-Taliban Afghanistan, nor about the family she is about to join. A grandfather who is a feminist, an adopted young boy who astounds with his intellect, and Freshta who will do anything to run away from her abusive husband. Like the other women in the family, Herra wears a burka and hides in a closet when guests arrive. Soon she starts a new job with American woman, Heidi, who has little understanding of the way women live in Afghanistan, and even less that not everybody wants to be saved by Westerners.

Directed and Art Direction by: Michaela Pavlátová
Written by: Ivan Arsenjev, Yaël Levy (po navdihu romana Frišta Petre Procházkove / Inspired from Petra Procházková’s novel Freshta)
Art director: Rafal Wojtunik
Editing: Evzenie Brabcová
Music: Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine
Sound Design: Régis Diebold
Voices: Zuzana Stivínová, Martha Issová, Hynek Čermák, Ivan Trojan
Producers: Petr Oukropec, Ron Dyens, Peter Badač
Production: Negativ Film Productions, Sacrebleu Productions, BFILM
Distribution: Totem Films

The film is based on the novel Freshta by Petra Procházková, an extraordinary and deeply humanistic book in which the author, thanks to her own personal experience, has managed to capture with an exceptional empathy the efforts of Afghan women to emancipate in the post-Taliban era.

The medium of animation for this project seemed natural to me. I have been working on an art design and style of animation which bring the characters and their environment closer to the audience and help them accept the characters and live their lives with them. Animation also enables to capture deep emotions and the bitter humour of this story. Animation also makes the story more lucid and simple. At the same time, stylized visuals, the possibility of compression, the elimination of the insignificant make the film more compact and strengthen the most important situations.
- Michaela Pavlátová

The main strength of the story lays on gentle humor and well observed everyday details of the family life. My Sunny Maad is a universal tale of husbands and wives, lovers and friends, who all seek happiness and acceptance against the backdrop of the unexpected events playing around them. It is a story about conceptions of human faith in a war-stricken country, seen through the eyes of the main heroine, Herra, a Czech woman.
- Michaela Pavlátová

Awards and festivals (selection):
- Jury Grand Prize, Annecy IAFF 2021
- Jury Prize for Feature Film, Bucheon IAFF 2021
- Best Feature Film, FICG Guadalajara IFF 2021
- Newest Feature Film Programme, Fantoche 2021
- Main Programme, Karlovy Vary IFF 2021