Czech Dream

DIR: Vit Klusak & Filip Remunda | Czech Republic | 2004 | 87min
In Czech with English subtitles.

SHOWTIMES:
Fri. Sept. 24 | 12:30pm | Pacific Cinematheque
Wed. Sept. 29 | 7:00pm | Ridge
Mon. Oct. 4 | 9:15pm | Granville 7 Cinema, Theatre 3
Wed. Oct. 6 | 4:30pm | Granville 7 Cinema, Theatre 6

Made by two filmmakers on a public grant, Czech Dream documents an elaborate and expensive prank on the people of the Czech Republic. The filmmakers hire an advertising firm to create a logo and full-on print/transit/web/television/radio media blitz to publicize the 'opening' of an entirely fictitious hypermarket (think Superstore) called "Czech Dream". They also have a location where they've erected a 10 X 100 metre scaffolding and banner made to look like a store front from far away. Oh, those wild and crazy Czechs!

The directors make it clear from the beginning that they do have a point to make about their country, post 1989. The film's opening montage contrasts radical protest footage from that time with footage of people in 2002 eagerly waiting to get their hands on opening day gate-crasher specials at the Electron store. Unfortunately, the documentary only partly illustrates the point and too often wanders off onto documenting the oh-so-clever elaborate-ness (really, -ness doesn't quite cover it - let's call it supreme elaborate-osity) of their fake campaign, which even included a trip to Hugo Boss for suits to make them look like management types.

The reactions of the people are mixed and some do pick up on the filmmakers' secondary point - they now live in a capitalist country with all the trappings of such, and many generations of people, the directors propose, are more vulnerable to its seductive downsides because of the sudden shift. By the time 'opening day' arrives, the prank has already started to seem rather cruel. And if not cruel, then a supreme - if somewhat entertaining - waste of time. A word of advice for the filmmakers: when both your advertising firm and your market research firm think you're dishonest, you may want to do a re-think.