I'm Sitting on a Branch, Enjoying Myself

In the aftermath of WWII, two chancers, Pepe and Prengel (Polívka and Pavelka), chum up and embark on a crazy adventure, having found gold and jewellery hidden inside a bicycle frame. Falling for a beautiful silent woman who appears to have survived the camps, they set up housekeeping and try to stay afloat in the crazy, anarchic make-do of the times, just as Communism comes to town. Originally to have been called 'Hanging on a Branch' (pointedly, given the date), the final title catches the film's vaudevillian spirit of endurance, of life as sad carnival, embodied in the two men. The tone is half Fellini, half Kusturica. Boisterous and fun, this is the second in Jakubisko's trilogy on freedom. (See also Little Birds, Orphans and Fools and It's Better to Be Wealthy and Healthy Than Poor and Ill.