Wrong Side Up

In 2001, Petr Zelenka, who we know from idiosyncratic films such as Knoflíkari (winner of a VPRO Tiger Award in 1998) and The Year of the Devil, wrote and directed the very successful play Tales of Common Insanity. Wrong Side Up is his film adaptation of this acid-comic play; a bitter-sweet and obviously eccentric comedy about ordinary people who sometimes do unusual things on the lookout for love. Petr (Ivan Trojan) works at the freight terminal of an airport. His girlfriend Jana (Zuzana Sulajová, who as a young girl acted in The Garden) has just left him for someone with a more interesting job, but Petr does not give up easily and wants her back. To earn a little extra, he watches the amorous games of his neighbours, as a paid audience. In the meantime, others in his immediate environment are facing crises in their relationships, albeit of a different kind. His boss, who has a fetish for shop-window dummies, keeps a list of the things that his wife throws at him. Petr’s father leaves his wife for a sculptress and, thanks to his past as a state propaganda newsreader, finds a new career in art. A box wrongly delivered to Petr’s work sets off a new series of problems. Just like the box, everyone seems to be on the wrong track. (LC)

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