Pelísky

Watching this movie at the Wellington International Film Festival, surrounded by emotional ex-patriot Czechs is an experience I will always remember and treasure.

The film details life during the Prague Spring, leading up to the Russian invasion. The humor is very Czech, and splendidly so. The ending reminded me of exactly why the Politician is the lowest form of life on the planet.

Go see this movie wherever and whenever you can.

I really enjoyed watching this movie. I found this gem by accident and I'm surprised that it hasn't found it's way to a major audience here in Germany although quite a few Czech movies run on public television. The movie is funny and witty but at times also sad and deadly serious. Like many other Czech movies the story is made up of small parts that fit together as a whole picture. There's the stubborn army officer a convinced communist and his family, there's the war hero that strongly opposes the communist regime a choleric and his family and the single teacher and her son who try to find a new man for the family and there are the teenagers of those families that don't really care about politics or what their parents think is important. Those are the main characters that form a whole picture of life in Czechoslovakia during the Prague spring in 1968. The stories switch at easy from funny to hilarious to sad and back. I recommend this movie to everyone to watch. It is certainly worth the time. Other reviews state that you have to be Czech to fully understand everything. Well, I could relate to the characters as well though I might have missed a cultural reference or two.

In last few days I've made my own home festival of Czech movies. Today in cue was Hrebejk's "Pelisky". Some times ago I've watched his Musime Si Pomahat so I expect great film. But today's movie touched me very deep, reminding some moments from my life. I was born in 1952 so in 1968 I was in same age as young characters of the movie. In august I was on my holidays in the little town in south Poland where my granny lived - just about 150 km from the border of Czechoslovakia. For the rest of my life I will remember the sound of the soviet warplanes heard 20/21 August. I've been watching this movie with the tears in my eyes. I knew all the songs from the CSR big-beat groups because in 1967/68 I've everyday listen the Stanice Hviezda from Ostrava - 80 km from my home town. Really, really great movie. Understandable not only for the Czech & Slovak people.

Prague in 1968 prior to the Soviet invasion. The setting is ideal for a political drama, but Czech artists prefer to make a comedy with political background. The action takes place in a house, where families from different political camps (pro-communist vs. anti-communist) live together. The story is told in such a warm, witty and funny way that it immediately resembles the golden years of Czech movie industry in the 70's and 80's. This movie was a tremendous hit on the local Czech market, unfortunately it has never reached my country (Poland). I've had a chance to see it only on the Warsaw Film Festival. It's sad but all the time distributors prefer to show s****y Hollywood cheesy-style romances or action packs, instead real-value movies. Definitely one of the movies of 1999 IMHO. The same goes for other Czech movie - "Return of the Idiot" (Navrat Idiota) - watch out for Czechs, they are on the right track again.

A beautifully understated story of ordinary people living their everyday lives through the trying times of Christmas '67 and the Prague Spring during the run up to the Soviet invasion. While the setting has be caught with stark and depressing realism, the film is perfectly balanced with a gently comic and bittersweet observation of the families and their relationships as they struggle through events from the mundane to the tragic. Personal loss, both of freedom and of loved ones, and the way life still manages to go on has been captured with deceptive ease and without resorting to the usual cliches and predictable attempts at closure that so often seem to pollute western cinema of this type.