''Cosy Dens'' ( cz, Pelíšky) is a

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

Czech film directed by

Jan Hřebejk Jan Hřebejk (; born 27 June 1967) is a Czechs, Czech film director and actor. Life and career Born in Prague, Hřebejk graduated from high school in 1987 and continued his studies at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in ...

. It is loosely based on the novel '' Hovno Hoří'' ( Czech: "Flaming Feces") by

Petr Šabach Petr Šabach (August 23, 1951 – September 16, 2017) was a Czech writer. Works * ''Jak potopit Austrálii'' (1986) * ''Hovno hoří'' (1994) * ''Zvláštní problém Františka S.'' (1996) * ''Putování mořského koně'' (1998) * ''Babič ...

. It was voted the best Czech film by ''Reflex'' magazine in 2011.

Plot summary

Pelíšky is a bittersweet

coming-of-age story In genre studies, a coming-of-age story is a genre of literature, theatre, film, and video game that focuses on the growth of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood, or "coming of age". Coming-of-age stories tend to emphasize dialogue or internal ...

set in the months from Christmas 1967 leading up to the ill-fated 1968

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...

. Teenager Michal Šebek (Michael Beran) has a crush on his upstairs neighbour, Jindřiška Krausová (Kristýna Nováková). Michal's family is headed by a stubborn army officer who is a firm supporter of the communist system and who believes that communist technology will eventually triumph over 'western imperialist capitalism', while Jindřiška's father is an ardent foe of the Communists and a war hero, who has been imprisoned several times because of his outspoken opposition to the regime; he believes that "the Bolsheviks have a year left at most, maybe two". In contrast, the younger generation couldn't care less for politics. Instead, Michal sports a

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

mop-top while Elien (Ondřej Brousek), the local hipster whose parents live in the USA, runs a local film group specialising in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

and pre-war French films, while Jindřiška becomes Elien's girlfriend. After a wedding that unites the families, the film ends with the news breaking of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact. A dispute in the film illustrates the tension between the nationalistic and stalwartly

anti-Communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

father and Jindřiška, who is more apolitical. Jindřiška dares to suggest that her mother’s dumplings are closer to Italian '' gnocchi'' than traditional Czech '' knedliky'' (translated as "Viennese dumplings" in the English subtitles), sending her father into a rage. The plastic spoon on the poster refers to the gifts, miracles of "socialist science", that a Šebek uncle keeps sending the family and which always fail to perform as promised, humiliating Mr. Šebek. Both cases foreshadow how the political hopes of the fathers are destroyed by the coming Soviet invasion.

Trivia

Pelíšky was screened at the 1999 Vancouver Film Festival. The Czech title is a plural and diminutive of the word "pelech", literally meaning animal den or burrow. It is used figuratively for a cosy hideout.http://slovnik.cz

Cast

* Miroslav Donutil as Mr. Šebek *

Jiří Kodet Jiří Kodet (6 December 1937 – 25 June 2005) was a Czech actor. He appeared in more than ninety films between 1951 and 2003. His mother Jiřina Steimarová and his daughter Barbora Kodetová Barbora Kodetová (born 6 September 1970) is a C ...

as Mr. Kraus *

Simona Stašová Simona Stašová (born 19 March 1955) is a Czech stage, film and television actress. Since making her theatre debut in 1976, she has acted on stage in theatres and appeared in numerous films and television productions. Stašová has won multiple ...

as Mrs. Šebková *

Emília Vášáryová Emília Vášáryová, Doctor Artis Dramaticae (hon.) (; born 18 May 1942) is a Slovak stage and screen actress, referred to as the "First Lady of Slovak Theater". During her over five decades long career, she has received numerous awards includ ...

as Mrs. Krausová *

Bolek Polívka Boleslav Polívka (born 31 July 1949, in Vizovice) is a Czech film and theatre actor, mime, playwright, and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 40 films. Career Polívka first started appearing in films in the 1960s. He graduated from t ...

as Uncle *

Eva Holubová Eva Holubová (born 7 March 1959) is a Czech actress. She is known for having cured herself of alcoholism. She received a Czech Lion Award in 2000 for her supporting role in the film ''Ene Bene'' and in 2006, she was nominated for the Best Actre ...

as Teacher *Marek Morvai as Petr *

Stella Zázvorková Stella Zázvorková (14 April 1922 – 18 May 2005) was a Czech actress from Prague. Zázvorková, an alumnus of Prague's theatre school of E.F. Burian, appeared in more than a hundred films and series. She was married to the actor Miloš ...

as Grandmother *

Jaroslav Dušek Jaroslav Dušek (born 30 April 1961) is a Czech actor. Selected filmography Film * '' Kouř'' (1991) * ''Cosy Dens'' (1999) * '' Divided We Fall'' (2000) * '' Želary'' (2003) * ''Pupendo'' (2003) * ''Mazaný Filip'' (2003) * '' Up and Down'' ...

as Saša Mašláň *Michael Beran as Michal Šebek * Kristýna Nováková as Jindřiška Krausová *Jiří Krejčík as Doctor Stárek *Sylvie Koblížková as Uzlinka Šebková *Ondřej Brousek as Elien *

Boris Hybner Boris Hybner (5 August, 1941 – 2 April, 2016) was a Czech actor, director, and mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than A ...

as Magician

Soundtrack

The ''Pelíšky'' soundtrack was released in April, 1999, and contains clips of some of the actors memorable lines in addition to the musical numbers. #

Blue Effect Blue Effect was a Czech rock band, also operating under the names M. Efekt, Modrý efekt, or The Special Blue Effect, since their formation in 1968. The band's main and only permanent member, from its founding until his death in 2016, was guitar ...

- "Slunečný hrob" # Miroslav Kaman, Jaroslav Dušek - "Dvě dávky" # Václav Neckář - "Tu kytaru jsem koupil kvůli tobě" # Boleslav Polívka - "Nebe na zemi" # Kristýna Nováková, Michael Beran, Ondřej Brousek - "Kozačky..." # Petr Novák & Flamengo - "Povídej" # Kristýna Nováková, Michael Beran - "Něco jako příbuzný" #

Waldemar Matuška Waldemar Matuška (; July 2, 1932 – May 30, 2009) was a Czechoslovak singer who became popular in his homeland during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1986, he immigrated to the United States. Early career Waldemar Matuška was born in Košice, Czech ...

- "Pojď se mnou, lásko má" #

, Jiří Kodet - "Dávám bolševikovi rok" #

Hana Hegerová Hana Hegerová (20 October 1931 – 23 March 2021) was a Slovak singer and actress. Often referred to as the Queen of Czechoslovak chanson, she gained popularity primarily as a singer of chansons. Outside of her homebase, Hegerová has attained ...

- "Čerešně" # Miroslav Donutil, Boleslav Polívka, Silvie Koblížková - "Nerozbitná sklenička" # Kučerovci - "Ajo mama" # Miroslav Donutil, Michael Beran - "Gagarinův bratr" # Kučerovci - "La mulher rendeira" # Stella Zázvorková, Simona Stašová, Miroslav Donutil, Boleslav Polívka - "Maršál Malinovskij" #

Judita Čeřovská Judita Čeřovská (21 April 1929 – 9 October 2001) was a Czechoslovakia, Czech Pop music, pop and chanson singer. Career Born in Most (Most District), Most, as a child Štěrbová lived in northern Bohemia. She remained there with her Germa ...

- "Je po dešti" # Eva Holubová, Jaroslav Dušek, Marek Morvai-Javorský - "Vyděržaj, pijaněr" # Václav Neckář - "Lékořice" #

, Kristýna Nováková, Jiří Kodet - "Noky" # Karel Gott - "Santa lucia" # Miroslav Donutil, Boleslav Polívka, Jiří Kodet - "Kde udělali soudruzi z NDR chybu?" #

- "Mrholí" # Eva Holubová, Jaroslav Dušek, Marek Morvai-Javorský - "Hoří hovno? ..." # Karel Gott & Olympic - "Trezor" # Jiří Kodet - "Proletáři všech zemí ..." #

Matadors A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activity ...

- "Get Down From The Tree" # Soulmen - "Baby Do Not Cry" # Soulmen - "I Wish I Were" #

- "Snakes" # Miroslav Donutil, Boleslav Polívka - "Průměrná ženská" #

- "Sluneční hrob"

References

External links

*
Soundtrack Listing
* *

' at

Eurochannel Eurochannel is a world television channel focused on European culture and lifestyle through movies, series and other programs dedicated to European culture. Eurochannel broadcasts in original audio with subtitles in English, Spanish and Portugue ...

Pelíšky (Cosy Dens) available for buying on www.czechmovie.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cosy Dens 1999 films Czech coming-of-age films Films directed by Jan Hřebejk Prague Spring Communism in fiction Films set in Prague Czechoslovakia in fiction Czech Lion Awards winners (films) Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia 1990s Czech-language films 1990s coming-of-age films