The Encounter

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1987

Production year

1987

Premiere

1988

Runtime

21 min

Director

Petr Tuček

Category

film

Genre

morality

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionshort

Original title

Setkání

Czech title

Setkání

English title

The Encounter

Working title

Setkání – Otázka cti II.

Synopsis

A house in the Old Town neighbourhood of Prague is under reconstruction. It is the last day before the holidays. Only the clerk Olga Janečková with her agenda as supervisor and the boilerman Bouše in the cellar remained in the empty building. The attractive although somewhat aging woman is visited by her lover, Láďa Harna. The couple makes love and watches a TV series. Outside, a group of young people change into costumes and masks in a caravan and run up and down the street, yelling. Olga realizes that it has turned late and she may miss her last bus from Prague. Bouše moreover locked the main door and the couple goes to pick up the key from him. Thus, two former acquaintances from the military service meet. Bouše is not excited – he is married, he has bought his children toys and hurries home. It also turns out that Harna used to be an aggresive stager abusing his military rank. Olga takes a taxi to the bus station and Harna mercilessly drags Bouše to a nearby restaurant, forcing him to drink. He expresses his desire for the pretty waiter Lucinka in a brutal and coarse way. Olga indeed misses the last bus and returns. She finds Bouše with the key still in the pub. The young people wearing masks are drinking there, too, but have no money to pay. They knock down the publican behind the counter in an intentionally stirred fight, steal the daily takings – more than five thousand crowns – that fell out from his pocket, and dash out. But Harna catches up with them, takes the money and returns it to the headwaiter. Bouše returns to the boiler room to repair the somewhat ruined gifts. He is expected by the lovelorn Olga with open arms but Bouše sends her home. The drunk Harna searches for Olga in the offices but is attacked by disguised brutes in the semidarkness and is severely injured. The intruders, however, do not find the money they are after. A photograph of Harna’s mother lies next to the helpless and bleeding man. Bouše, unaware of anything, locks the building where no one will come for three days.

Cast

Karel Heřmánek

Láďa Harna

Ondřej Pavelka

topič Bouše

Jana Švandová

úřednice Olga Janečková

Sabina Hánová

servírka Lucinka

Crew and creators

Director

Petr Tuček

Second Unit Director

Václav Hnát

Director of Photography

Jan Seidel

Production Designer

Josef Diviš

Set Designer

Stanislav Krejča, Václav Pustina

Costume Designer

Jana Čechová

Film Editor

Jan Petras

Sound Designer

Vladimír Brostík

Special Effects

Ludvík Malý

Production Manager

Karel Kvítek

Unit Production Manager

Petr Brada, Zdeněk Krištof

Unit Production Manager

Marcela Režová

Cooperation

Ivana Velichová, Karel Průša, Martin Nováček, Vladimír Nahodil

Music

Music Composed by

archivní

Music Selected by

Petr Tuček

Production info

Original Title

Setkání

Czech Title

Setkání

English Title

The Encounter

Working Title

Setkání – Otázka cti II.

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

morality

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1987

Production Year

1987

Premiere

premiere 1988 /suitable for youths/

Distribution slogan

no caption

Production

KF Praha

Technical info

Duration typology

short film

Duration in minutes

21 min

Original length in metres

585 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm, 35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech