Up and Down

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 2004, 108 min
Section: Czech Films 2004-2005

Synopsis

A little baby, forgotten in a lorry used to transport refugees, becomes the driving force determining the fates of a small group of people who differ in age, standing, education and life experience. The dark-skinned child is taken in by the childless Míla, whose husband František is a racist football rowdie. Also having to deal with unexpected circumstances is professor Horecký who, sensing that his end is near, decides to restore family relations. Apart from an adolescent daughter and a younger partner, he is also still married to Věra, with whom he has a grown-up son, Martin, who lives in Australia.... This mosaic of stories is pieced together in a dejected comedy to create an image of a contemporary Czech society burdened with intolerance, racism and indifference. This, the first film set in the present by director/writer duo Hřebejk/Jarchovský, won Czech Lions for Best Film, Best Direction (Jan Hřebejk), Best Actress (Emília Vášáryová), Best Actor (Petr Forman), Best Screenplay (Petr Jarchovský).

About the director

Jan Hřebejk (b. 1967, Prague) enjoys a reputation as one of the most popular and most awarded Czech directors. He studied script editing and screenwriting at Prague’s FAMU and in 1993 debuted with the 1950’s retro-musical Big Beat which won Czech Lions for Best Direction and Best Czech Film of the Year. This was followed by a tragicomedy dealing with family relationships set against the backdrop of the events of 1968, Cosy Dens (1999); a bitter-sweet story from the time of the Nazi occupation, Divided We Fall (2000); and a tragicomedy set during the Czechoslovak Normalisation period, Pupendo (2003). He has successfully created works for Czech Television (e.g. the family series “Where Stars Fall” (1996)), and he is equally adept in the theatre (having worked with the stage companies Kašpar and Prague’s Divadlo pod Palmovkou).