The Gnome

A village family moves up in the world, to the county town. The father works as a butcher at a meatpacking plant. The mother is a checkout worker at a supermarket. The daughter is constantly at odds with her class teacher. The son is learning the butcher’s trade to please his father. He does not eat meat, though, and does not fit his father’s world at all. He is in trouble with his forewoman and with the police as well. When the father takes an interest in a young butcher the balance at home breaks completely. The mother does what she can to put it right, and then makes a plan of her own. The film tells it as dark comedy mixed with slapstick. Eva Holubová and Bolek Polívka take the leads in Tomáš Vorel’s Czech film of 2005.