A SARCOPHAGUS FOR A QUEEN (2019)

Summary

It has been more one human generation since Queen Margrethe II of Denmark invited the sculptor and professor at the Royal Academy Bjørn Nørgaard for lunch and asked him to design a sculpture for the last unused crypt at Roskilde Cathedral, where she and her husband, Prince Henrik, were to be buried.
For this church, where Danish monarchs have been buried for the past eight centuries, Nørgaard designed a glass sarcophagus inside which are two larger-than-life figures symbolizing the emptiness of power, while its crystal essence represents openness and the democratization of governance.
After several years of discussions regarding his idea and its funding, Bjørn Nørgaard began to look for someone capable of casting a sculpture consisting of six one-ton pieces of clear cast glass.

After five years of experimenting in Japan, China, and the United States, he eventually landed at Zdeněk Lhotský's cast glass studio in Pelechov near Železný Brod. Here, the story expands to include the centuries-long tradition of Bohemian glassmaking, the direct influence of the famous glass artists Stanislav Libeňský and Jaroslava Brychtová, and also the distinctive originality of a member of the Tvrdohlaví group of artists.

This film is another in a series of films shot by cameraman Miroslav Janek over the past five years to look at the birth of an exceptional work of art. In interviews with documentary filmmaker Pavel Štingl, we see Zdeněk Lhotský swing between his bohemian lifestyle (including playing the bass guitar with his band, MTO) and dramatic moments associated with an extraordinary artistic and technological experiment that, in terms of size, has no equal in the world of glass art.
After a series of initial failures, a great work of European art is born. But just as it is being loaded for transport, the unexpected news arrives that Prince Henrik has passed away and that, unfortunately, the prince consort to Margrethe II – originally a French nobleman – did not wish to be buried at Roskilde.
His ashes are scattered at sea just as the sarcophagus for the queen is being installed.

Responding to heated debate in the media regarding the sense of installing a sculpture whose central theme consists of two figures clearly visible within the crystal-clear cenotaph, the Queen proclaims that the sculpture will continue to await her burial in the cathedral, but that it will remain shrouded from public view. This unique work, which one of Denmark's leading artists spent fifteen years work on and Zdeněk Lhotský five, is currently inside a wooden case, where it will remain hidden for many years to come.
"We serve the queen," says the Czech glass artist at the end of the film... The queen wills it. Our film has essentially become the sculpture, since – aside from a few photographs in a royal press release – it is the only visual document of the creation of this extraordinary work of art, for whose unveiling Denmark will now have wait an uncertain period of time.

With:
Bjørn Nørgaard, Henrik Keil, Robert Hušek, Zdeněk Lhotský and his capable team of collaborators from his cast glass studio in Pelechov
Camera: Miroslav Janek
Sound: Vladimír Chrastil, Michael Míček
Music: Jaroslav Kořán
Editing: Katarína Buchanan Geyerová
Dramaturgy: Kateřina Ondřejková
Executive producer, Czech Television: Jarmila Hoznauerová
Directed by: Pavel Štingl

A co-production of K2, Czech Television, and Studio Lhotský, with support from the Czech Film Fund.