Helena Štvánová

Žalobníci

Chicken on Travels

During his work assignment in Tamani Kingdom, Czech worker Lojza saves a local man from dying in the desert. Two years later, it turns out the saved man was also the Taman king; and he has decided to name Lojza, a communist, his royal heir.

In her first feature, Věra Chytilová uses a combination of documentary and fiction film techniques to tell two stories in counterpoint. The first follows Olympic champion gymnast Eva Bosáková, who contemplates retirement as she undergoes a gruelling training schedule; the second, a housewife who is unappreciated and ignored by her husband.

Working on the hops fields gathering hops for beer, Filip catches a glimpse of fellow worker/comrade Hanka and falls for her. Trying to keep their love secret from the field owners,fellow worker Honza becomes jealous of Filip having a romance with Hanka, which leads to Honza deciding that he will feed the hop field owners Hanka and Filip's secret romantic hops.