{image1}In his new film, "Up and Down," director and co-screenwriter Jan Hrebejk -- who normally works amid historical settings -- takes his first look at contemporary Czech society and uses three interwoven plot lines to do it. The film was the Czech Republic's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The first story follows a pair of smugglers and the ring of petty thieves to which they belong. After ditching their human cargo near the Slovak border, the men realize that one of the Indian immigrants has left behind her baby. Although one wants to abandon it, the other refuses, and they put the baby on the black market.
Meanwhile, in a cramped Prague apartment, Mila (Natasa Burger) and Franta (Jiri Machacek) are trying to make do. Franta works as a security guard because his past as a soccer thug prevents the realization of his dream of joining the police force.
Mila yearns for a baby, which she is unable to conceive. They can't adopt due to Franta's criminal record and Mila, seemingly on the verge of madness, comes awfully close to kidnapping unattended babies on the street.
In a decidedly different part of town, a professor appears to be leading a happy life with his longtime girlfriend -- a social worker involved in trying to reunite a distraught mother with her lost child -- and their teenage daughter, a dancer. But when he suffers the effects of a brain tumor, his complicated family's past comes to light.
Especially interesting is the return of the professor's estranged son, who has spent the past two decades in Australia. He seems at once confused by the Czech society he finds on his return. His new outlook doesn't fit, and he appears eager to return to his life abroad.
The film is, at times, funny, dramatic and painfully sad. It seems that the director and his co-screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky have succeeded in capturing a complex society during a transitional time.
Burger is a special highlight for her ability to capture the hopefulness, sorrow and yearning of Mila, desperate to become a mother at any cost. Machacek is also a standout as is her buffoonish husband, whom we desperately hope learns a lesson about the evils of racism and violence.
"Up and Down" is in Czech with English subtitles.
"Up and Down" opened Friday, April 15 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
