Empties

Director Jan Sverák and his father (screenwriter/lead actor) Zdenek Sverák have completed an excellent trilogy about life, love and happiness. They began with the Oscar nominated The Elementary School in 1992, a film set in a suburb of Prague just as the second world war ended. It's a coming of age tale about story telling, lost childhood and lost innocence. They followed this with the Oscar winning film Kolya in 1996. It is a work of love, beautifully photographed in rich deep reds and browns. This lovely story with wonderful acting offers a fresh variation on a curmudgeon finding himself 'saddled' with an unwanted young charge. Recently they completed the loose trilogy with the highly popular Czech film Empties, which was a resounding success for us with two full screenings and a total audience of 671. Director Jan and father/screenwriter/lead actor Zdenek served up a lovely bittersweet comedy. Beginning with a quote from a famous Czech author "For a little love I would go to the end of the world bareheaded and barefooted" the film is ultimately about one man's search for love/happiness for himself, his wife, his daughter/grandson and the characters who surround him at work. Containing very believable dialogue and acting, Empties, the highest grossing film in Czech history, seemed to leave our audience smiling as they left the theatre.

It is rumoured that Jan and father Zdenek had quite a few battles regarding the script and the development of the character arc for the lead character. You'll have to watch the film to guess what the arguments may have entailed.

Besides Kolya, the other Oscar winning Czech film was Closely Watched Trains (1966), directed by Jirí Menzel. In 2006, Jirí also directed, I Served the King of England, which was supplanted as the highest grossing Czech film ever by Empties.

Julian D.