Catalogue of Czech Television Programmes
The plot of this bittersweet comedy, the latest creation from the team which brought you the successful Cozy Dens and Divided We Fall, centers around the rather unusual ritual which lent its name to the film. This time around the action is set in that Orwellian year, 1984, at a time when life is slipping through the fingers of the generation most affected by the Soviet occupation of 1968. Pupendos main character is sculptor Bedřich Mára who lives with his ceramicist wife Alena in a small apartment in Prague. Years ago for political reasons he was forced out of a job as head of a studio at the Academy of Art. He is not allowed to exhibit and has thus been relegated to the sidelines of interest and lucrative commissions. He often contemplates life with a fishing rod in his hands. . . . Comrade Míla Břečkas family stands in sharp contrast to Bedřichs. Míla, the principal of an elementary school, and his ambitious wife Magda, Bedřichs former student at the academy, successfully cooperate with the Communist regime. Like many others, those in the family circle judge Míla, but their rather cowardly behavior has helped him to get ahead. A group of adolescents lends plot support to the generation of parents. These teenage kids have their own opinions about their parents attitudes and aspirations: they dont believe in change for the better and dont expect much from their parents efforts. They spend time dreaming of escaping their everyday lives, but their desires focus above all on a trip to the seaside. In the end, our heroes do make it to a sea of sorts. It hardly matters that the season is already over and that its only Central Europes substitute Lake Balaton sprawled out on the endless Hungarian puszta.
HD | 122' | © 2003
director(s): Jan Hřebejk
producer(s): Czech Television, Total HelpArt T.H.A.
scriptwriter(s): Petr Jarchovský
director of photography: Jan Malíř
cast: Boleslav Polívka, Jaroslav Dušek, Eva Holubová, Vilma Cibulková, Jiří Pecha, Pavel Liška, Boris Hybner, Bohumil Klepl, Zuzana Krónerová, Nikola Pešková, Lukáš Baborský and others
rights available: TV, Video, Internet, Theatrical
original language: Czech
subtitles available: English