Year: 1999
Country:
CZECH REPUBLIC
Language:
Czech, Russian
Run Time:
115 minutes
A hit on home soil, Jan Hrebejk's sublimely observant comedy-drama will transport you back to that tenuous time and place -- Czechoslovakia in 1968 --when "socialism with a human face" seemed ready to materialize. It's the giddy "Prague Spring," and Western liberalism has started to pour in through cracks in the Iron Curtain. Democratic political movements threaten the Communist Party; rock 'n' roll excites the young generation. Ordinary families in a Prague apartment building take humor and heartbreak in stride. Adult brothers drink too much at family gatherings and bicker about politics and the height of Kodiak bears. The coolest teen on the block projects foreign films out his window onto a bed sheet for the neighborhood to watch. Couples seek intimacy in impossibly close living quarters, with the kids always listening in. A choleric veteran Nazi fighter shouts out polemics against the Russians, his neighbors, and especially his own family. Police officers and teachers, those community workers entrusted with shaping young minds, turn out to be quietly scary. For one brief moment in time, there's freedom in the air. Soon, though, Soviet tanks will roll in, shaking these burghers from their COSY DENS of complacency. (In Czech with English subtitles) – B.B.
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 4:15 PM
Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 11:30 AM
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