IVAN FRANĚK (MAREK)
Born in Plzeň, the Czech Republic, Ivan Franěk originally thought about pursuing a career in sports. However, at the age of fifteen, he followed in the footsteps of his older brother Petr who just joined an amateur theatre and decided to become an actor. In his early amateur acting years, Ivan completed mechanic training in Škoda and an evening course at a local industrial secondary school. In 1983, he began his studies at the Department of Puppet Theatre of the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, from which he graduated in 1989. During the final year of his studies, Ivan met a French girl participating in an internship program and he left to France with her for a year in autumn 1989. He joined Jean-Pierre Lescot's puppet theatre where he worked as an artist and puppeteer for almost 10 years. Since 1996, Ivan has been co-operating with French television and he has been appearing in full-length films since 2000. A breaking point in Ivan's career came in 2001 when he was offered the lead in Silvio Soldini's Brucio nel vento (Burning in the Wind). As the picture was an international success, he was able to get roles in a number of French and Italian films. In the Czech Republic, we could see him in the adventure film Les Marins perdus (Lost Seamen, by Claire Devers, 2003), in the co-production picture Vodka lemon (by Hiner Saleem, 2003), in the French criminal drama 36 Quai des Orfèvres (Department 36, by Oliver Marchal, 2004). Ivan returned to Czech cinematography with a role in Tajnosti (Little Girl Blue), a film by Alice Nellis, which was awarded the Czech Lion for the Film of the Year in 2007. In 2008, he featured as an actor in, among others, Italian films L'amore non basta (by Stefano Chiantini), Il prossimo tuo (Thy Neighbour, by Anne Riitta Ciccone). Apart from T.M.A., we will see Ivan Franěk in another Czech picture released in 2009, i.e. Hodinu nevíš (Unknown Hour, by Dan Svátek).