Robert works for a travel agency and helps to arrange scenes from the everyday lives of "ordinary" Czech families as an attraction for Japanese tourists. He also works as a kind of matchmaker and occasionally helps to put together some of his friends. He helps to separate his friend Hanka from Peter, an announcer for an independent radio station who tries to capture "real" life by recording the moments from "reality" and playing them over the air. Vesna, came to Prague from Macedonia because it is according to her the best place for UFOs to land, but her real reason for coming is somewhat different... Hanka is followed by the crazy Ondrej, until then a respected brain surgeon, and married with two kids. Through him she meets Jacob, who uses copious amounts of weed in order to be constructive in this gloomy world. On the other hand, this destroys his short-term memory - and he forgets that he already has a girlfriend...
Acting
Macháček's stoner amnesia is uncomfortably real
Direction
Ondříček balances cruelty with genuine warmth
Writing
Dialogue that sounds improvised but isn't
Director
David Ondříček
Jitka Schneiderová
Hanka
Saša Rašilov
Petr
Jiří Macháček
Jakub
Labina Mitevska
Vesna
Ivan Trojan
Ondřej
Dana Sedláková
Lenka
Mikuláš Křen
Robert
Tatiana Dyková
prostitutka
František Němec
otec Hanky
Hana Maciuchová
matka Hanky
Zdeněk Dvořáček
Injured
Zdeněk Suchý
drogový dealer
Emma Černá
matka Roberta
David Matásek
vlastník rádia
Pavla Drtinová
dívka v baru
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of the Czech New Wave revival, this captures post-1989 disillusionment where capitalism didn't fix loneliness. The 'fake ordinary families' tourism satirizes how the West consumed Eastern European 'authenticity.'
David Ondříček was only 26 when he directed this. Ivan Trojan later became one of Czech cinema's biggest stars—hard to believe watching him unhinged here.
CZ
