Menandros & Thaïs

If someone is able to watch this to the end with an intact brain just to make sure that an ancient epic cannot be filmed with limited resources, he is a) a martyr b) a masochist c) an authentic recessionist. Amateur high school zone of declamation, philology and surrealism for beginners. Agonizing. To put it in the "new" (supposedly) branch of Czech film, which does things differently, is a misstep. It is, at its core, classic nineties meta-garbage. Zelenka’s style, but completely without his dexterity. (2016.05.01)

This is not an amateur pseudo-achievement made in an offhand manner, but a consciously conceived and, mainly, erudite variation on ancient epics. It’s true that it makes very little sense to rank this film alongside contemporary Czech films made by the younger generation of filmmakers, but only in the sense that experimentation and informed wordplay necessarily stand apart from everything else, especially conventional narratives that pick up techniques at foreign festivals. To criticise an intentionally theatrical project by people working in modern theatre simply indicates a sheer lack of understanding and a failure to accept the concept. The merits of Antonín Šilar and Ondřej Cikán’s film lie in its consistent and informed adherence to the ancient epics, not only in their narrative composition, typical motifs and formulas, but also in their ahistorical nature and the mythical world’s relationship to contemporary reality. The film takes these attributes from Cikán’s book of the same name, which he had written after years of studying antiquity. The adaptation adds the imaginative staging of individual scenes and images, combining the techniques of modern scenography, imaginative set design and punkish low-budget aesthetics. At the same time, the contrast between the mythical story, the modern presentation and the creative filming gives rise to a whole that simultaneously deconstructs and strengthens the ancient stories. (2016.07.11)