Joe Karafiát

Meet The Plastic People of the Universe, the avant-garde, jazz-rock, Sun Ra meets Velvet Underground, Czech revolutionaries. A tribute to the band that against all odds used the power of their music to help topple their oppressive government.

A labyrinthine portrait of Czech culture on the brink of a new millennium. Egon Bondy prophesies a capitalist inferno, Jim Čert admits to collaborating with the secret police, Jaroslav Foglar can’t find a bottle-opener, and Ivan Diviš makes observations about his own funeral. This is the Czech Republic in the late 90s, as detailed in Karel Vachek’s documentary.

Journalist Renata Kalenská’s book of interviews with Vratislav Brabenec, prominent member of the Plastic People group, recorded not only his memories of the underground years, but also the author’s experiences with this highly distinctive individual. The film represents a cinematic sequel to the book, and looks to build on those experiences as it captures additional interviews with Brabenec, mainly improvised talks at places that hold some meaning for Brabenec or Kalenská. The result is several scenes of irrelevant philosophising, self-deprecating humour, and commentary on the life of birds, and on nature in general. The conversations, recorded mostly by hand-held camera, are interspersed with poetic citations.