Long Live the Republic!

Retreading Czechoslovakia's post-war 'liberation' by the Soviets with typically Czech scepticism and droll whimsy, this follows a long day and night in the life of Olda, a young loner with a decidedly over-active fantasy life. While his parents and their neighbours are busy preparing for an exchange of occupying forces, Olda loses patience with his daily errands and runs away with the family horse. Losing it to a retreating band of German soldiers, he then tries stealing another from a Soviet encampment. Mainly, though, he lets his mind work on every fleeting experience and sensation, flitting between what are either past echoes or imagined illusions. As the film cuts ever faster among these scattershot fantasies and flashbacks, it takes the form of a near psychotic stream of consciousness. Hard to follow, let alone fathom, but intriguingly quirky.