Lost in Munich

Petr Zelenka is very specific and a very good author. This isn't just playing with history; this is playing with film, playing with the audience who isn't sure what they're actually watching. And you won't experience this twist just once, but rather several times. Despite the form, the idea here doesn't get lost, which is very intriguing and one that I could easily believe in. And all of this with a peculiar sense of humor. (2017-02-10)

Spectacular! The best Czech movie in recent years. An excellent comedy(?) extending beyond the limits of the genre, unparalleled in contemporary Czech cinema. After a weird trailer, I decided to give it a miss at the cinema, but I regret it all the more now, because I enjoyed literally every minute of it. A clear five stars and a completely new perspective concerning the events of 1938 for me. I recommend not reading up on the movie in advance. All the surprising twists only intensified my experience. (2016-03-20)

I have a mix of emotions regarding Petr Zelenka's distinctive films. Some of them have impressed me, while others have left me with an average impression. However, I have no problem admitting that Zelenka is one of the most interesting filmmakers that the lackluster Czech film scene currently possesses. I have never associated his name with any significant disappointment. Actually, I cannot speak of disappointment even now. Based on paradoxically enthusiastic responses, I didn't believe in the film, and my instinct did not let me down. Zelenka served me two films in one, but I don't get either of them and I conclude that they don't harmonize together at all. Although the author is inspired by the ideas of historian Jan Tesař, he interprets them in his own way. This time, Zelenka's mystification didn't entertain me; I felt a similar self-centeredness in it as I have perceived in the surrealistic performances of a certain Prague theater in the last two decades. Those people are also content with entertaining themselves and their fan club. Overall impression: 35%. (2017-07-18)

A film about why something doesn't work, which thematizes that we actually do our best work when we pretend that we are not good at it, and during this it is so perfectly buck-passing and artificial that it resembles a parrot who just repeats what others tell him. A potentially interesting concept walled up by inconsistency. While the Year of the Devil was quite an interesting "mocumentary", the second half of Lost in Munich feels like a very lame defense of why the former doesn't make sense. And since Zelenka alternates between documentary shots with purely film footage and continuously flat music, the result of the defense is as sparse as the acted part. Meta-weaklings from the nineties. A mental ghetto of an eternal revision of a national stereotype that affirms itself with love and that is why it survives, even if someone seems to parody it. Long overdue and still boring as fuck. Let’s turn the page. (2017-04-24)

An extremely original film. Funny, playful, sophisticated, thought-provoking, perfectly filmed... Moreover, it will delight all die-hard admirers of Edvard Beneš, of which I am one. The less you know in advance about the plot of Lost in Munich, the better. The first twist is really SO unexpected that I would hate to be deprived of it beforehand. Petr Zelenka plays beautifully with the viewer, but his aim is not to mischievously trick him. No, on the contrary, he rewards the viewer with a pleasant feeling of "I thought there was something not quite... But I really wouldn't have thought of that, bravo!" In short, after some time, the Czech Republic has once again produced a film that I don't want and can't fault at all. (2015-11-03)