Summary
Following the village comedy Slunce, seno, jahody (Sun, Hay and Strawberries, 1983) Zdeněk Troška went on to make the romantic drama Poklad hraběte Chamaré (The Treasure of Count Chamaré, 1984) and the fairytale O princezně Jasněnce a létajícím ševci (Princess Brightness and the Flying Shoemaker, 1987). Troška then returned to the Southern Bohemian village of Hoštice to make a sequel to his highly successful pastoral comedy. Slunce, seno a pár facek (Sun, Hay and Slaps, 1989) loosely continues with the story of its forerunner. The trilogy was completed with Slunce, seno, erotika (Sun, Hay and Erotic, 1991) but it was the second film in the sequence that elevated its creator into the select club of filmmakers who have satisfied the expectations of a mass audience. The plot, once again created by Troška and screenwriter Petr Markov, revolves around the wedding of Blažena Škopková, pregnant (since the first part of the series, i.e. six years ago in the viewer’s time) by her boyfriend Venca Konopník. However, Venca is falsely accused of also having fathered the child of flirtatious engineer Tejfarová. The wedding is called off and the families of the intended couple waste no time in bad-mouthing and denigrating each other. Not even a last-minute reconciliation between the two families can prevent the final all-out melee… Director Troška once again provided his audience with light, holiday entertainment in which greater room was given to the most popular characters from the earlier film, above all mother Škopková, unforgettably delivered by Helena Růžičková. Also enjoying their revived roles were Stanislav Tříska as Mrs Škopková’s husband, Veronika Kánská as their daughter, and Valerie Kaplanová as the grandmother. New characters in this sequel include Ms Tejfarová, played by Kateřina Lojdová and Dr Kroupa (Josef Stárek), who is ensnared by Mrs Škopková as a prospective replacement spouse for her daughter… The later films of Troška were known for their somewhat predictable casts with the director repeatedly employing tried and tested actors to satisfy popular demand. This makes the appearances of Jiřina Jirásková (civilised school director Ms Hubičková) and Jiří Lábus (animal husbandry specialist Béďa) in Sun, Hay and Slaps all the more surprising. In 1989, Troška had not yet sealed his reputation as a populist filmmaker ruining his audience’s tastes.
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