Secluded, Near Woods

The Lavičkas live in Prague and are looking for a place in the country. They find a house for sale at the edge of the woods. Old Komárek, who owns it, agrees to sell, and the paperwork has even been discussed. But he does not move out. The family spend the summer in one half of the house and Komárek stays in the other. The city family have no idea how to live in the country, and the old man gives up none of his habits. A slow, polite, endless tug of war goes on between them. Jiří Menzel directs the Czech comedy; ninety-two minutes. Zdeněk Svěrák and Ladislav Smoljak wrote it and both appear in it, with Josef Kemr as Komárek. It was made in the normalisation years in Czechoslovakia, and it keeps away from politics and looks at people instead.