The Key to Determining Dwarfs, or the Last Voyage of Lemuel Gulliver

Taking its title from the Swiftian project that the Czech New Wave auteur Pavel Jurácek struggled through the '60s and beyond to bring to screen, this lyrical, low key adaptation of the Jurácek's diaries from the time fashions an ineffably poignant elegy of personal, professional and political heartbreak from the sparest of materials: b/w reconstructions (shot with Jurácek's son Marek), some archive footage, a wistful voice-over and the late Lubos Fiser's ululating piano music. Set against the arc of Jurácek's disillusionment is the humour and poetry of his observations. He calls the Soviet tanks come to snuff out the Prague Spring, 'a rhino against a butterfly'. About his colleague Jan Nemec, he says: '[He] has it easier: he's been certified insane. Whenever he's afraid he just remembers that and he's fine.' Surprisingly affecting.