My Sweet Little Village

Warm-hearted, funny and moving portrait of a village life from Jiří Menzel, the Oscar-winning director of Closely Observed Trains.

The Oscar winning director Jiří Menzel (Closely Observed Trains, 1967) got his second nomination for Best Foreign Language Film with this charming bucolic comedy penned by Zdeněk Svěrák. Set in a picturesque village, the story centres around the wobbly friendship of local trucker Pavek, short and round, and his intellectually challenged assistant, tall and skinny Otík who keeps botching simple jobs. When he directs long-suffering Pavek's truck into a gatepost, their Laurel & Hardy relationship is threatened leaving Otík open to the scheming of a corrupt politician who wants his house.

Inhabited by a bunch of eccentric characters including the absent-minded doctor (the wonderful Rudolf Hrušínský), poet at heart but a menace on the road, a pretty young wife, her young lover and her jealous older husband, and a teenager with a crush on his sibling‘s teacher, this is a warm-hearted, funny and moving portrait of a village life. Part of the 27th Made in Prague Festival, 3 November – 10 December 2023, organised by the Czech Centre London.