Hot Air

Summary

Scriptwriter Jiří Křižan was only 24 years old when he made his first transition to film with Horký vzduch (Hot Air, 1965), a medium-length tragicomedy with Václav Gajer as director. Gajer began shooting the film even before Křižan was accepted as a distance-learning student of screenwriting and dramaturgy at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). The young screenwriter had previously been banned from the industry for political reasons. Despite his youth, Křižan, who was later recognised for his outstanding screenwriting, managed to convey the sensibilities of an old and impoverished country dweller pushed into an irrecoverable situation by his usurping daughter-in-law... This unjustly neglected film features a remarkable and convincing performance by the then 68-year-old Zdeněk Štěpánek, who plays the role of old man Březina. Among the film’s qualities is the telling way in which Křižan and Gajer capture the sense of social isolation in the lead character. Other veterans of the silver screen play reliable supporting roles, including Jaroslav Marvan and Václav Trégl.

Synopsis