It's Better to Be Wealthy and Healthy Than Poor and Ill

The final instalment in Jakubisko's trilogy on happiness and freedom finds the central trio of part two, I'm Sitting on a Branch, Enjoying Myself, still in place, but with the genders reversed. Here it's two women, dissident Nona and Ester, mistress to the chief of the secret police, who pair up in the wake of the Velvet Revolution. Embarking on an irrepressible journey in search of money and happiness in the newly unfettered economic reality, while sharing artist Robert along the way, they eventually find that what they seek is not necessarily where they were looking. There's an undeniable melancholy to Jakubisko's vision, but no denying the zest and energy with which he, and by default his fellow citizens, stave off despair through sheer will. (See also Little Birds, Orphans and Fools.