BUTTONERS
(Knoflikari)
Year: 1998
Country:
Czech Republic
Run Time:
102 minutes
Petr Zelenka's "black comedy about forgiveness" interlaces six - at least - separate but interdependent narratives, all of which come together in one night on the 50th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Participants include a succession of adulterous couples trying to make love in a taxi, or trying to catch other couples in the act in a taxi; a disgruntled, champion trainspitter (that's right, not trainspotter . . . but trainspitter); a psychologist rushing towards his own crackup; a distinguished-looking gentleman iwth a curious fetish for buttons; and the penitent pilot of the Enola Gay, re-materializing for a new mission. If only it were that simple, alas! Narrative time in BUTTONERS does not always flow in a single straightforward direction, and not all of what you see can be safely disbelieved, even when it's positively nuts. Yet the unbalanced Czech account, like an M.C. Escher etching, takes on a wondrous symmetry when seen from the proper angle. Already a cult hit in Eastern Europe, BUTTONERS trips swtiches in your mind you didn't even know you had, with its wildly original blend of gravity, levity, philosophy and sci-fi. (In Czech with English subtitles)
Screenplay
Petr Zelenka
Director
Petr Zelenka
Producer
Czech Television Creative Team
Cinematography
Miro Gabor
Editing
David Charap
Principal Cast
Jiri Kodet, Broivoj Navratil, Rudolf Hrusinksy, Eva Holubova, Vladimir Dlouhy
Telexport
Kavci hory
140 70 Prague 4
Czech Republic
tel: (420) (2) 611 37 438
fax: (420) (2) 612 11 354
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