Something Like Happiness

After the bitter-sweet observations of Czech country life in his début, Wild Bees, Bohdan Sláma seems to want to adopt a slightly more gloomy - yet still hopeful - tone with Something Like Happiness. The rural setting has been exchanged for an apartment block in a grey, decaying industrial town. Three friends grew up together here. Now, as adults, they all wrestle with their loneliness, desires and failures. Monika is waiting for her boyfriend, who has left for America, to make it big. The unshaven Tonik has fled his suffocating parental home and now lives with his eccentric aunt on a derelict farm. The fragile Dasha, who has two small children and a married lover, can no longer cope with her situation and collapses. Monika offers to look after the children. Tonik grasps this opportunity to be closer to his unrequited love. This beautifully acted and moving drama was a great success in the Czech Republic and has also attracted international attention. Like Wild Bees before it, it is the Czech submission for the Oscars. At the San Sebastian Film Festival, actress Anna Geislerová received a Silver Shell for her role as Dasha, while Sláma himself received the Golden Shell for best film. (LC)