Sverak’s new movie is out / Sverakovy Vratne Lahve

      Zdenek and Jan Sverak, legendary Czech directors and producers,  are showing this year their new movie called Vratne Lahve(Return Bottles). It’s supposed to be the end of the “Sverak Trilogy” , which started with a great movie The Elementary School(Obecna Skola, 1991), showing Zdenek’s early childhood memories. This was followed by the Oscar-winning “Kolya (Kolja, 1996), bringing us to Zdenek Sverak’s adulthood. “Vratne Lahve” closes up the movie trilogy where Zdenek works on making his peace with getting old. What is the movie about? The hero is Josef Tkaloun (Zdenek Sverak), former grade school teacher who, although retired, doesn’t feel like he fits into the stereotype of a “retired old guy”; he is not yet ready to be sitting around on the park benches all day or, even worse, fight at home with his quarrelling and sarcastic wife. That’s why he decides to get a job at a local supermarket store – at the Bottle recycling department. This small and at first meaningless place becomes a micro-world of human destinies, where old Tkaloun acts as an  observer.

Czech version follows…

“Vratne Lahve” is the first Czech movie on the home front that after more than six years reached over 1 million viewers in the Czech cinemas. Before that the 1 million-viewer limit was reached by another of Sverak’s movies – The Dark Blue World(Tmavomodry Svet, 2001). ” Vratne Lahve” was recently  shown at the Film Festival in Cannes this year and it will also represent the Czech cinematography in the upcoming Film Festival in Karlovy Vary.

“Kolya” and “Dark Blue World” – movies by Sverak senior (Zdenek) – are available on www.netflix.com if you are interested to watch them. Sverak junior (Jan) became know through his earlier movies, namely The Ride(Jizda, 1994) and Akumluator I(1994).  If you would like to see The Ride it’s being shown at the Bohemian Beer Garden, NY at the beginning of July ( you can find more info on my recent post on “Czech stuff: calendar for July 07′”) 

CZ:Zdenek a Jan Sverakovi ukazuji jiz od brezna tohoto roku jejich novy film zvany “Vratne lahve” (Return bottles, 2007). Ma to byt dokoncujici soucast Zdenkovy “trilogie” zacinajici s Obecnou skolou ( The Elementary School;1991) mapujici jeho detsvi, a pokracujici Oskarovym filmem Kolja (1996;zobrazujici jeho dospela leta) a koncici nynejsim filmem Vratne lahve, kde se Zdenek Sverak smiruje se svym starim. Jaky je strucny obsah filmu?? Hrdinou je Jozef Tkaloun, byvaly ucitel, ktery je sice v duchodu, ale v parku na lavicce nebo poslouchat jeho hasterivou manzelku se mu cely den neche, tak si najde misto v mistnim supermarketu – a to ve vykupu lahvi. Tento maly, zprvu bezvyznamny prostor se stane mikrosvetem lidskych osudu a penzista Tkaloun je jejich hlavnim pozorovatelem.

“Vratne lahve” jsou po sesti letech prvnim ceskym filmem prekrocujicim hranici 1 milionu divaku v domacich kinech ( pred tim to byl – opet Sverakuv film – Tmavomodry Svet). Tento film byl take v tomto roce uveden na Filmovem Festivalu v Cannes a take bude zastupovat ceskou kinematografii v nadchazejicim festivalu v Karlovych Varech.

 Kolja a Tmavomodry svet – filmy Zdenka Sveraka – jsou k mani na www.netflix.com. Zdenkuv  syn Jan se proslavil filmy jako je Jizda (Ride;1994) a Akumulator I (1994). Jestlize mate zajem, muzete shlednout Jizdu zacatkem cervence a to v Bohemian Beer Garden, NY (for further info czech out my recent post on “Czech stuff: calendar for July 07′”).

http://www.studenty.estranky.cz/stranka/vratne-lahve

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/magazin/film/index_view.php?id=25507