Michal and Šimon Caban present

“So many to choose from. In the end we selected a film we saw for the first time thirty years ago, and this year we’ll only be seeing it for the second time. It was practically the first one we thought of. But we can’t remember what it was about, we only know that we were taken by its bizarreness, quite unlike anything people in this country could’ve seen in the late 1980s (but before 1989). Weirdness, singing, the plot, the artistry, the impression... So we’re looking forward to the Karlovy Vary screening.”

This bizarre spectacle, combining horror, rock opera, and an ostentatiously faked mise-en-scène à la gothic, was perceived in the Thatcher era as a parable with socio-critical overtones. Billy the Kid is a young cockney while demonic snooker champion Maxwell Randall is an unscrupulous predator – but here they symbolize a generational conflict and the struggle between good and evil.