Vít Komrzý

A Christmas comedy-fairy tale in which Prince Leopold and Princess Josephine defy fate by vowing never to marry. When a time-travel adventure to the future goes awry, they must fight for their lives and their kingdom, only to discover, as in all fairy tales, that destiny has other plans.

The star Svituška, paired with the admired Sirius, is one day cast down to earth by the jealous star Proxima. Svituška falls into a village where she is found and cared for by a teacher named Václav. Svituška has only a few days to return to the sky or she will perish. She relies on Sirius to rescue her, but intrigues by Proxima keep him away. Each evening, Václav watches the princess skating on the frozen lake and harbors a secret love for her. One night, Svituška accompanies him and, upon seeing the princess, rekindles her own light, fueled by the power of Václav’s pure love for the princess. With Václav’s help, Svituška will survive until she can return to the heavens.

Today, analogue video is attractive primarily thanks to the distinctive aesthetic quality of its pixelated image and raster errors. But for Czech artists who first explored the possibilities offered by video art in the late 1980s, this medium represented a path towards freedom. Through a portrait of her grandfather Radek Pilař, one of the pioneers of Czech video art, the director explores her own legacy of imperative creative fascination. Her film’s main story, i.e., the process of reconstructing the 1989 exhibition Video Day, contrasts this enchantment with life in the final days of the totalitarian regime, which different sharply with the adventures of those who decided to emigrate – whom the filmmaker also visits in order to discover forgotten works, get to know their creators, and re-establish broken ties.

An experimental study about Czech life, focusing on Prague's National Street, its businesses and the varied people who frequent it.