Traps

Gender questions thread through all Chytilová's work, albeit posed in widely differing ways. Here the rape of a vet, Lenka (Stivinová), by two men (Donutil and Hanák) prompts a revenge enquiry by both 'victim' and film-maker on the structures and mindsets that condone such a violation. Yet the director's approach is at once both tragic and comic. Commerce, careerism, new economy excess and satirical/allegorical informants all play their part, but it's the cutting edge of the vet's response that anchors the gaudy darkness of Chytilová's vision.