Filming has wrapped on the fourth instalment of the beloved Czech wine comedy franchise Bobule, titled Bobule a bobulky (Bobule and Little Berries), with the theatrical premiere set for 11 February 2027. The news was announced by the film's director, Marta Ferencová.
In the new instalment, Kryštof Hádek and Lukáš Langmajer return to the fictional wine region of Pavava — only this time as fathers to teenage sons who, it seems, have inherited not just their dads' sense of humour but also their knack for getting into trouble.
"I'm curious to see how this film turns out, because I like how the story has been built. Bobule has practically become its own genre by now. Maybe one day it will all end with us playing grandfathers, with our entire lives captured in this film series," said Kryštof Hádek, who plays Gonza.
Lukáš Langmajer is once again taking on the role of Jiří. "People watch it, love it, laugh, and want to take photos at places connected to Bobule. An awful lot has happened around this film over the past 18 years," the actor noted.
Director Marta Ferencová admitted that coming up with a fresh story wasn't easy: "I tried to build a genuinely new plot, because once something already has three instalments, the fourth one is either just riding the momentum or marks the start of a whole new life."
This time, a younger generation of actors takes centre stage: Tomáš Shawn Pšenička plays Gonza's son Adam, while Prokop Zach plays Jiří's son Kuba. Producer and creator of the idea, winemaker Tomáš Vican, said the concept of young protagonists came together naturally once he saw the actors standing next to their on-screen fathers.
The plot also brings in actors from Brno's City Theatre, Jakub Uličník and Michal Isteník, who attempt to sabotage the "Tastes of Pavava" festival. One of the film's surprises will be the return of Bolek Polívka as a priest — a role he first played back in 1997 in Vladimír Michálek's drama Forgotten Light. A new face joining the series is Zlata Adamovská, who, alongside Polívka, will play a pair of good-natured older conspirators watching the world from the sidelines.
Slovak director Marta Ferencová graduated from the directing programme at Bratislava's VŠMU, worked on television series, and made her feature-film debut with the fairy tale Rachanda in 2016. She is also known for her romantic comedies A Wish for Baby Jesus, I'll Tell You How I'm Doing This Summer, and Too Personal an Acquaintance. Although critics tend to greet her films coolly, she remains one of Czech cinema's most commercially successful comedy directors — her most popular film, Too Personal an Acquaintance, drew nearly 313,000 viewers and grossed 46.4 million crowns.
Of the Bobule trilogy filmed so far, the highest-grossing instalment was the second one, 2Bobule (2009), directed by Vlado Lanný: according to kinomaniak.cz, it was seen by more than 357,000 cinema-goers and grossed close to 38 million crowns. Second place goes to the original 2008 film, directed by Tomáš Bařina, with 350,627 viewers and takings of over 34 million crowns. Rounding out the list is the six-years-younger 3Bobule, directed by Martin Kopp, which drew 297,000 viewers and grossed more than 38 million crowns.
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Source: brnan.cz