My Sweet Little Village

A small village in Czechoslovakia. Pávek drives a truck with Otík, a young man with a learning disability, as his assistant, and something goes wrong every day because of him. Eventually Pávek asks for someone else. At the same time an official from Prague has his eye on Otík's little house and is looking for a way to send him to the city. Jiří Menzel directs. The film's strength is its tolerance for its characters' faults. Almost everyone in the village is concealing something: one is cheating on his wife, another lies constantly, the doctor keeps crashing his car. Menzel punishes none of them. The gaze is not mocking, it is patient. Although made in socialist Czechoslovakia the film is not directly political. But the Prague official's contempt for the villagers, and the pressure applied through property, read plainly to anyone who knows the period. It was nominated for the foreign language film Oscar in 1986. In the Czech Republic it remains one of the best loved films there is, and its lines have passed into everyday speech. Who it is for: viewers who like Czech cinema and rural comedy with warmth in it. Who it is not for: the presentation of Otík sits awkwardly now. The film regards him with affection and also uses him as something to laugh at.