Panelstory aneb Jak se rodí sídliste

This is an incredible film that deserves to be better known in the US.

Using a hand-held verite camera style, Panalstory follows the live of several residents of a communist-bloc apartment complex from hell. Shot in a real unfinished housing project, the film is one of those things you can't believe got past the state censors. However don't think this film is only about life in the Soviet bloc. It one of the best universal human life films, I've seen. The filming and editing are superb and once again the director predates filming styles that are all the rage now.

If you live in New York City, the City University cable channel runs this film occasionally.

This is one of those movies that was presumably made because a location was available. Vera Ch. makes an anarchic comedy out of life in a high-rise Prague housing development where everyone is driven crazy over one day's course by the nonstop construction, confusingly lookalike streets/buildings, clogged bureaucracy, kids running amuck, and whatnot. It's a bit like Roy Andersson's more recent films in its making comedy of everyday desperation, and Jacques Tati in its slapstick of modern urban life, plus a bit of J.G. Ballard's "High Rise"-though as filtered though this filmmaker's particular frenetic sensibility. Political commentary is kept on the "Whattayagonna do, life is crazy!" level that would have been acceptable to the government censors at the time. It's a crowded, restless, absurdist ensemble film that is consistently amusing if never quite truly inspired.