Brats

Colour, 35mm
Czech Republic, 2002, 97 min
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

Marek and Monika Šír move from Prague to the country. Their plan is to find not only better air for a son who suffers miserably from asthma, but also a more advantageous environment for two older Romany boys they’ve adopted. Their dream of free and natural living soon goes awry when an elderly neighbour accuses their son František of breaking the front windshield of his car. The villagers are not very obliging to the strangers; coexisting with such open hostility, which seems to be heading towards litigation, pushes the Šír´s to react inappropriately. The boys themselves manage to make Marek and Monika see red from time to time despite the parents’ determination to create a just and loving family environment. But the normalcy of the everyday is born out of the fragile miracle of love and the fear of irremediable errors. The film’s temperate narration offers an open look at questions of everyday tolerance and ecology within a family and social environment.

About the director

Zdeněk Tyc (b. 1956) graduated in direction from Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU), and his school films won various awards. He made a name for himself with his balladic black-and-white feature Vojtěch, Called the Orphan (1989), considered one of the most noteworthy debuts in recent memory; it won the Grand Jury Prize at the Festival of First Films in Angers, France. After Razor Blades (1993), a symbolic film shot in a French coproduction about life under Communism and the salvation of love (starring Czech underground music legend Filip Topol), Tyc shot the comedy Seizing the Day (1995). His latest feature effort, The Brats (2002), is based on Tereza Boučková’s prose; its screenplay received support from the Sundance Institute in 2000.