Owners

The owners of the flats in a building come together for a meeting. The building is in bad condition and needs urgent repair. Mrs Zahrádková has come prepared to explain that and to get a decision made. But as the meeting goes on not a single item can be voted through: some do not want to pay for anything, some complain about procedure, some raise a matter that has nothing to do with the subject. Hours pass. Jiří Havelka's film takes place almost entirely in one room, over the course of one meeting. The camera moves around the table and never goes outside. The mould is comedy but the material is political: a group of people unable to reach a common decision, everyone defending their own interest, and the building going on rotting at the end. It is among the most talked-about examples of the genre in Czech cinema in recent years. Ninety-seven minutes.