Meeting in July

Long-time screenwriter Ota Hofman is most particularly connected with the creation of children’s features directed by Jindřich Polák. However, he also worked with Karel Kachyňa. Over 1973-1978 they realised four features together: teenage romance Láska (Love, 1973), children’s retro title Robinsonka (The Girl Robinson, 1974), fairytale Malá mořská víla (Little Mermaid, 1976) and comedy romance Setkání v červenci (Meeting in July, 1978). This feature lightly approaches a theme considered a little bold for the time – a love romance between a teacher and her student. High school student Jakub (the then 23-year-old Oldřich Kaiser) has to resit an English language exam, and to get him ready his wealthy parents pay for him to attend a holiday language course. It turns out that the course is being headed by the despised, divorced teacher Klára (Daniela Kolářová), the person who failed Jakub in his exam. But Klára’s five-year-old son (Tomáš Holý) is in need of a new daddy – and he is unmistakeably in favour of the unexpected feelings that arise between the apparently disparate couple.