Friday Is No Holiday

It is Friday, and in their flat in a modern Prague housing estate the Novák family are getting ready to go to their weekend wood cabin. As usual, when they get there they quarrel. They are extending the cabin but they can't get hold of the right planks. On Monday the working week begins again. The father Karel works in research for the Tempochron firm, the mother Eva is a hairdresser, the older daughter Mirka is at high school and the younger Jarka is at basic nine-grade school. The whole week is marked by hurry. Eva is buying a dress for Mirka "under the counter" as a birthday present, and on the way she meets a succesful friend Hanuš, who has come back from two years in India. Eva immediately starts praising her husband in front of him. In the evening, the Nováks manage a visit from friends and an outing to the cinema. On Friday Karel is promoted, and has to hand over his work results to his successor at very short notice, but Eva phones him with the news that she located the planks and it is now up to Karel to go and get them. He succeeds, but it means he has to slip out of work early in order to get them to the cabin. On the way, his car breaks down, and he has to get the Yellow Angels (breakdown team) to repair it. The new highway team is being filmed for the evening news on TV, so Karel goes back to work. The director is pleased by his keenness, but later when watching the evening news he realizes why Karel failed to attend the earlier meeting. Eva is missing Karel and Mirka at the cabin. She realizes that people are more important than property. Out of fear for her family, she sets off back to Prague on her motorbike. The whole family meet at the moment when Karel, returning to the cabin, veers off the road into a field.