Lost in Munich

Synopsis

Sir P, a 90-year-old talking grey parrot that once belonged to Edouard Daladier, finds himself in Prague at the invitation of the French Cultural Institute as a living relic of the time of the Munich Agreement. The Czech side organises a rather absurd press conference at which the “gentleman” does indeed repeat certain key statements ascribed to his erstwhile owner. The parrot is kidnapped by Pavel, a Czech journalist, and his controversial statements of Edouard Daladier cause something of an accidental political scandal.

Biography

Born in Prague in 1967, Petr Zelenka is one of the Czech Republic’s most highly regarded screenwriters and directors. He studied scriptwriting and dramaturgy at FAMU (1991) and then worked as a script editor at the Barrandov film studios. He wrote the script for the short Allen-esque piece EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT WERE AFRAID TO EXPERIENCE (1999, dir. Jan Hřebejk) and for the box-office hit comedy LONERS (2000, dir. David Ondříček). In 1993 he directed the fictional feature-length documentary PADLOCK (Visací zámek 1982-2007), which he followed with the similarly conceived HAPPY END (1996). He then made his award-winning feature debut BUTTONERS (1997 – Czech Lion for Best Czech Film, among others), YEAR OF THE DEVIL (2002 — Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary VIFF) and an adaptation of his own stage play which won the prestigious Alfréd Radok prize, WRONG SIDE UP (2005).

Filmography:
1993 - PADLOCK, doc.
1996 - HAPPY END
1997 - BUTTONERS
2002 - YEAR OF THE DEVIL
2005 - WRONG SIDE UP