Empties

Like his Oscar-winning Kolya, Jan Sv_rák's new film stars and is scripted by his father, Zdenek Sverák. Past retirement age, schoolteacher Josef Tkaloun finds he no longer understands his pupils and decides to resign. However, unaccustomed to a life of inactivity, he defers the books he has saved for retirement and opts for a succession of part-time jobs, including that of cycle messenger and supervisor of the bottle returns in a supermarket. He finds an interesting new world (supplemented by continuing erotic fantasies), from which his wife is excluded. Based on Zdenek Sverák's musings on what his life might be like if he had such a job, it is not without autobiographical inspiration. Arguably the Sverák' best film, this sophisticated and perceptive comedy is full of the low-key observation characteristic of the best of Czech cinema - unpretentious, involving, and apparently effortless. The biggest box office success in the Czech Republic since the fall of Communism, Empties crosses the generation divide with its traditional narrative virtues and a characteristically taciturn performance from Sverák senior.

Peter Hames