Summary
Director Dušan Klein and author and screenwriter Ladislav Pecháček created films together outside the popular “Poets” series. They also cooperated in their respective roles in the making of Vážení přátelé, ano (Yes, My Dear Friends!, 1989), a well conceived satire that premiered in cinemas only one month ahead of the Velvet Revolution. The narrative successfully juxtaposes the pitiful condition of the main protagonist, beset by an incapacitating mid-life crisis, with that of the socialist regime of the late 1980s, teetering on the brink of collapse. The clerk Bohouš Fischer, superbly portrayed by Milan Lasica, is promoted to deputy director of a company manufacturing sanitary wares. Rather than devote himself to office work, where his indifference and systematic indolence have so far been well rewarded, he is instead drawn to “creative” work, building a tile stove. Bohouš’s personal life, which includes two rebellious daughters and a few vain attempts at adultery, is full of resolutions to implement change which are as half-hearted as the daily operations of Fortuna, the toilet-making company.
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