Horem Pádem - Up and Down and a Dream about "Přítel"

"Horem Pádem" ("Up and Down") is a very interesting film by Jan Hřebejk. The English title fits the film, because in the movie there is a battery-operated toy that is the figure of a woman in a bathing suit doing sit-ups. Her motions are accompanied by the phrase "Up and down" in English. The film deals with immigration and racism, and it shows how international some issues are. It opens with immigrants being smuggled into the Czech Republic in the back of a truck. When they are left on a roadside a baby is accidentally left on the truck. There is a woman who wants very badly to have a baby, but she is unable to have one of her own. At one point she tries to take someone else's baby. Her husband is a security guard. He wants to be a police officer, but he cannot do that because of a police record. He is on probation. It is not clear what he is on probation, but it has something to do with unruly behavior as a soccer fan. He is involved with some skinhead soccer fans. His wife buys the baby that had been left on the truck. The baby has dark skin. There is also a complicated family situation within a Czech family. A professor collapses while giving a lecture on "Migration, emigration and immigration." He wants to see his son who has emigrated to Australia, and he wants to divorce his wife. They have been separated for twenty years. He has a daughter with a woman with whom he has been living. His daughter does not know about the existence of her half brother or his mother until they are mentioned when her father is in the hospital. It turns out that her mother had been her half brothers girlfriend until he emigrated, and she became involved with his father. The racial issues and the issues of immigration could easily take place in the United States or in any other country. There are scenes that remind me of my six-week visit to Prague and how much I want to return there for at least a visit. I wish I could get a soundtrack from this movie. It has great music.

Last night I had a dream about the Czech word "přítel." I was trying to remember the vocative form of the word. it seems that if I go very long without some contact with the Czech or Slovak languages I dream about some aspect of the language.