Improwizowana (i prowokowana) "komedia dokumentalna", czyli "Czeski sen" na jawie i "Czeski pokój" na bojowo

Abstract

For years, Czech (and Czechoslovak) cinema has been associated with excellent traditions and a trusty brand. Apart from outstanding feature films, which have always been welcomed by cinema- -goers, Czech documentaries are increasingly gaining popularity. In this field a new generation of documentary filmmakers is rising to fame. In recent years, nobody has been more provoking and irritating, as well as prompting the average Czech to reflect upon his or her behaviour, than Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda. These two talented Czech documentary filmmakers, alumni of the renowned FAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, are controversial scandalmongers and at the same time original cult artists. They have created their own style of reality show and a specific kind of documentary – the so called ‘documentary comedy’. Not only do they watch and record human behaviour, but – just to get to the heart of the matter – they also spontaneously document Czech reality, provoking and involving average Czechs, unsuspecting as they might be, in a carefully planned and camouflaged staging. The present article describes in detail and in an interesting way two such events and the films based on them: Czech Dream [Český sen] and Czech Peace [Český mír]. The former constitutes harsh criticism of globalisation and Czech consumerism. It shows a huge hoax – an influential bombastic advertising campaign of ‘Czech Dream’, a newly-opened but nonexistent supermarket in Prague, and the social repercussions of this perfectly orchestrated deception. The latter depicts a ‘rebellion’ of the inhabitants of Trokavec, a small Czech municipality, supported by pacifists and ecologists against Czech and world’s politicians who – without a referendum or taking the possible effects of their decision into consideration – have planned to build there an American base and a missile defense radar. We get to know the two parties of the conflict and their arguments. This film is evidently more like a documentary record, but even so there are a lot of comical situations and Svejk-like attitudes of the accidental ‘actors’.