Up and Down (Horem pádem)

Year: 2004
Country: CZECH REPUBLIC
Run Time: 108 minutes

"A person takes risks like this so that he can visit Thailand and eat deep-fried bat," says Goran to his partner-in-crime Milan after a near miss with the border patrol. The two just successfully trafficked a truck-full of illegal Indian immigrants over the Slovak-Czech border, but they aren't in the clear yet. In their haste to dispose of their passengers, Goran and Milan drive off with a baby in the truck bed. Upon discovering the accidental stowaway, they decide the small child may be the perfect way to make an extra buck. But who wants to buy a baby? The answer may be in Miluska who is desperate to become a mother. But her soccer-obsessed husband Franta has a criminal record, which makes them ineligible for adoption. Meanwhile, social worker Hana has been assigned to find the lost baby, but her own family is on the verge of a breakdown. In UP AND DOWN, Hrebejk interrogates the notion of the home, on both personal and national levels, within the travails of this eclectic group of Czech characters. (In English, Czech, German, and Russian with subtitles) – E.J.B.

• Tweet