UP AND DOWN

Country: Czech Republic
Director: Jan Hrebejk
Lead Actors: Petr Forman, Emília Vásáryová, Jan Triska, Ingrid Timková, Kristýna Boková, Jirí Machácek, Natasa Burger, and Jaroslav Duse
Running time: 108 min.
Czech and German with English subtitles
Rating: Not yet rated

"The result is an absorbing look at a country still struggling to adjust more than a decade after the fall of communism." - V. A. Musetto, New York Post

Director Jan Hrebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovksky join forces for their sixth feature together. Following up on their international success with Cosy Dens, Divided We Fall and Pupendo , this is their first feature set in contemporary Prague.

A vibrant and immediate film shot in a semi-documentary style, it conveys common feelings, including xenophobia and racism, of central Europeans who, once isolated by the Iron Curtain, now face the rise of corporate globalization and its seemingly more fluid borders.

An extraordinary cast includes such greats of Czech cinema as Jan Triska, the highly respected Slovak actress Emília Vášáryová and Milos Forman’s son Petr Forman, as well as the participation of President Vaclav Havel. Two refugee smugglers discover a two-month-old Indian child abandoned in a car and sell the forgotten infant to a childless woman. Unfortunately her husband is a soccer hooligan and a rabid racist... When an older university professor collapses at work, it sets into motion the accidental discovery by his teenage daughter that he has a first wife he never divorced, as well as a son from this marriage... These and other stories intertwine in this accomplished film about ordinary people who after long periods of silence, separation and lies, discover the strength and courage to find one another.

A deeply moving tale of forgiveness and reconciliation about people discovering their own personal ways out of historical chaos, these tragicomic stories about losing and finding loved ones, build into a bold treatise on cultural identity and love.

"Foreign films can be as enchanting as ever, and perspective-expanding too. The latest proof is Up and Down, a wonderfully funny, giddily intricate Czech comedy" - Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal