Happy Josef

Milan Peer / Czechoslovakia / 1970 / 6 min.

synopsis

The portrait of Josef Hrdina, an ordinary resident of Hloubětín, factory security guard and keen gardener, is based on silent observational shots of a day in the protagonist’s life, which are accompanied by playfully ironic commentary in the intertitles. Everything is ordinary, even banal, and contented; only occasionally does a sense of unease creep into Josef’s world – a feeling linked to the devastated environment surrounding his small house and the factories of Hloubětín, churning smokestacks and construction sites.

biography

Milan Peer (1945–2015) was part of the first generation of FAMU’s documentary film graduates. His most famous work, which he made while still a student, is the documentary Ticho (Silence, 1969), a report on the funeral of Jan Palach. After graduating from FAMU, he worked at Krátký film, where he further developed his essayistic and abstract style (Okna or Windows) and also worked on animated films.