A favourite Barrandov film studios practice – making motion pictures with multiple storylines that allowed three novice directors to debut at once – was behind the delivery of Jak rodí chlap (Man in Labour, 1980). For Zdeněk Troška and Jan Ekl it really was their first attempt at making a short film; Vladimír Drha had already directed a short as part of the multi-narrative film Návštěvy (The Visitors, 1970), which was not completed for ideological reasons. The three short stories, scripted by David Jan Novotný, have the common theme of first-time fathers. The hero of Troška’s story Poštovský panáček (Mail Coach Driver, 1979) is a postman working in the mountains, Ekl’s crime story Hádanka (The Riddle, 1979) is about a new father who becomes a suspect in a murder case, and Drha’s Věrné milování (Faithful Love, 1979) is a tale of punishment meted out to a barfly. While it was a promising start for both Troška and Drha, Ekl later gave up directing films.
Three short stories.
Jak rodí chlap
Jak rodí chlap
Man in Labour
Jak se rodí chlap
povídkový film
featuretheatrical distribution
crime, short-story, psychological
Czechoslovakia
1979
1979
literary Screenplay approved 26 February 1979 (povídka Poštovský panáček)
start of filming 7 March 1979 (povídka Poštovský panáček)
technical Screenplay approved 8 March 1979 (povídka Poštovský panáček)
literary Screenplay approved 10 May 1979 (povídka Hádanka)
end of filming 16 May 1979 (povídka Poštovský panáček)
literary Screenplay approved 20 May 1979 (povídka Věrné milování)
start of filming 28 May 1979 (povídka Hádanka)
technical Screenplay approved 28 May 1979 (povídka Věrné milování)
start of filming 28 May 1979 (povídka Věrné milování)
technical Screenplay approved 15 June 1979 (povídka Hádanka)
end of filming 7 August 1979 (povídka Věrné milování)
end of filming 7 September 1979 (povídka Hádanka)
projection approval 9 November 1979 (povídka Věrné milování)
projection approval 9 November 1979 (povídka Poštovský panáček)
projection approval 28 December 1979 (povídka Hádanka)
withdrawal from distribution 31 December 1986
premiere 8 August 1980 /inaccessible for youths/
feature film
86 min
2 449 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,66
colour
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech