Stestí

In a industrial city in the Czech Republic, Monika 'Moni' (Tatiana Vilhelmová), Tonik (Pavel Liska) and Dasha (Anna Geislerová) are old friends that live in a working class building.

Moni's boyfriend Jirka has just emigrated to the United States of America expecting to have a better life and promises to bring Moni later. Her mother Jirina, who is a woman frustrated with her marriage with the unemployed Olda Soucek, presses Moni to move on together with Jirka, but her father would rather prefer his daughter to stay in their country.

Tonik is a loser, but a good man, that has an unrequited love for Moni. His estranged father would like him to work in the local factory, but Tonik has chosen to move to the ruined house that belonged to his grandfather and the factory wants to buy where his aunt lives.

Dasha is an unbalanced, neglectful and ungrateful single mother with two sons, Denis and Pat, and has an affair with the married Jára (Marek Daniel). When Dasha has a mental breakdown, she is interned in a psychiatric hospital and Moni decides to stay in the Czech Republic with the children, otherwise they will be sent to the orphanage. She moves to Tonik's house and together with his aunt, they work hard to restore the house. Out of the blue, Dasha returns to take her children.

"Stesti" is a powerful and realistic drama about relationship, friendship, feelings, love, ingratitude, happiness and many other emotions. The top-notch performances give the sensation of a documentary and it is interesting to see the children growing up along eighteen months of filming.

Moni is an enlightened character and Tatiana Vilhelmová is a very beautiful woman. Fortunately "Stestí" is an European film therefore with a realistic conclusion without false redemption. I am sure that Moni will find Tonik since his father lives in the same building of her family and her travel is certainly to meet him. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Algo Como a Felicidade" ("Something Like Happiness")

Post eastern block collapse Czech , lack of opportunities , borderline poverty , dull and drab everyday life. Strained system , multitude of problems that we see anywhere everywhere … lack of family values , insanity , selfishness …. promise of migration to a better world.Through all these a young girl with an escape at hand ( read immigration to the promised land ) keeps alive her human values , value for life , family , obligations .There is nothing extraordinary happening in this movie at any given moment … yet there is a simple flow of life with all its pain and anguish that we feel , I would rate this as a very good drama realistic ,simple , true to life …. a good cinema that would remind you about the true purpose of life itself !!!Splendid acting esp. by the lead actor and actress , good camera work … worth watching !!!

...as it's indicated in movie info. Better genre description is "bitter-sweet comedy".... This movie is pretty sad look into life of poor people from industrial part of Czech. It's about life which most of us wouldn't like to live, but all of us should realize, that a lot of people live their lives that way. After you see this movie, you will realize how perfect life you live, how hard life some people live and how much should we be thankful for every day we live. What is most neighbourly in this movie, is that characters in are not described as embittered people without buoyancy, but as people who enjoy every day and every little joy as it comes...

The film "Stesti" ("Some kind of happiness") reminds me of the cinema of the Czech New Wave of sixties, especially of the first films of Milos Forman (The Loves of a Blonde, The Firemen's Ball). The same sincere and touching interest to the preoccupations and destiny of the simple people, especially their sentimental life. The same unhurried cadence. But it is a more disillusioned film also, probably because it describes a country in the state of breakdown before reconstruction and it shows the people in the turmoil and torment of change. It is an unsophisticated film, as films of the developing world often are, but it is realistic and honest one as these films are sometimes. Of course Czechie is not a developing country but it seems that the sophistication and glamor of Western cinema is not so easy to attain even for a director of talent. I must mention also the work of the cameraman. Especially his landscapes. Sometimes they are absolutely exquisite. Sometimes beautiful and nostalgic.

There are quite different opinions on Bohdan Slama, a young Czech director. I give my own here. I believe him to be the greatest talent of the current Czech cinematography. He worked on his second movie "Stesti" really hard and for a long time, which eventually led to a surprisingly good result and high expectations of his upcoming work. He is marvelous (and precise!) in directing the actors, he gives them life and credibility. The movie is very dense and every moment is functional so it requires you to watch carefully! Most people say it is a sad or even a drastic movie and take the name Stesti rather as irony of the author. "Stesti" is ambiguous between happiness and luck. The German Glück is exactly the same. (How silly that they try to find different names for it in English and German! Something like happiness is a REALLY bad translation.) Seeing the movie only from its sad side is seeing the surface. Somewhere deeper, in the minds of the two main characters - Tonik and Monika, who eventually fall in love, there is a real happiness, one which most of us hasn't had the opportunity to experience. The happiness stems from the very fact that they live a life which is not simple but very meaningful. The sad and drastic background stands in direct contrast to the inner happiness of the characters. This is most apparent at the very end, where Monika, after leaving her boyfriend in the United States (most obviously standing for empty meaningless material dreams, not at all for a better life) comes back to Tonik's house (the symbol of all his humble material efforts but also and mainly his home), which is under destruction. Monika leaves the place with a light smile (how can people not see that!) and goes looking for Tonik, the source of her happiness, the one who gives her life meaning, no matter where he is, whether he has a house, or fixes broken windows with a piece of scotch-tape. The message of the movie is totally universal and labeling it as a social drama stemming from the unsatisfactory situation of an industrial and poor region of the Czech Republic is a misinterpretation, or at least a demotion.