THE RIDE

Known for his big budget success “Accumulator 1” (19th CIFF, 1995), Jan Sverak shot THE RIDE in 20 days for $30,000 and has created a delightful, parody-filled tribute to a long tradition of road movies from “Easy Rider” to “Thelma and Louise,” and, most recently, “The Doom Generation.” Beautifully shot in the Eastern European countryside, THE RIDE concerns two friends, Radek and Frank, who cut the top off their old wreck to make a convertible, assume a swaggering, freedom-loving American posture, and cavort about Bohemia on an aimless journey. Along the way they meet up with Anne (the Czech supermodel Anna Geislerova), a beautiful girl on the run from her obsessive ex-boyfriend. As they resume tehir travels with Anne on board, they discover a whole new world of possibilities and pairings – until Anne's previous life catches up with them with a treacherous twist . . . In Czech with English subtitles. – Jeffrey Dollinger