When asked what he was looking for in a winning movie, the Jury President Jiri Menzel (director of the
great, bittersweet 1968 Czech New Wave classic “Closely Watched Trains”) said “I
hope to find a nice film about people." Sorry, wrong
festival. As noted below, what you’ll find here is a lot of alcoholism, child
abuse, intractable depression, violence against women, dead cats, faux cynicism, genuine
cynicism, corrupt officials and overall despair.