Czech Film Festival: The Garden Store: Suitor (2017)
Jan Hřebejk is nothing if not ambitious. The Prague native spent most of 2017 working on The Garden Store, a trilogy of war movies that were released just months apart from one another. All three screen back-to-back (with intermissions) on May 25 as part of San Diego’s first Czechoslovakian Film Festival. The show kicks off at the Museum of Photographic Arts at 10 am. Mr. Hřebejk will on hand to introduce all three films. (Expect a Q&A following the second movie, so dress sharp.) Nine hours is a big commitment to make, but you’re up for it. For tickets, visit eventbrite.com.
And then there was Jindrich (Martin Finger), the angry brother held captive by the Nazis just long enough for his young daughter to grow up thinking the family doctor is her father. Deserter ends with an elegant aging device that advances the story by a couple of decades. What’s left of the characters we’ve come to know takes a back seat to young love, with Jindrich fighting hard to discourage his now fully grown daughter Vilma (Aňa Geislerová) from making something serious out of her summer romance with titular courter Mirek (Ivan Lupták). Then a war buddy who saved Jindrich’s life calls in the favor by requesting that a marriage be arranged between his gawkish son and beautiful Vilma. The blunt manner in which a fed-up Slavek (Jachym Kucera) at last gives Vilma the air hits like fireworks to the brain. Finally, there’s Aunt Marie (Sabina Remundová) who, like a recurring sitcom character, has one signature function: she can’t stop eating. Closing the trilogy on such an insignificant character was the biggest puzzler in an otherwise engrossing way to spend a Saturday afternoon. — Scott Marks