Calamity (Kalamita)

In Věra Chytilová’s biting satire, a young college dropout navigates both a new job as a train driver and the amorous advances of multiple women. Though on the surface a relatively straightforward romantic comedy (all the better to fool the censors), CALAMITY is consistently subversive in its ironic commentary on the bureaucratic failings of Czech society.

A major figure in Czech cinema, Věra Chytilová (1929-2014) began her career at the Barrandov studio as a clapwoman, script girl and then assistant director. To become a filmmaker, she decided to train at the famous FAMU film school in Prague. When she entered the school in 1957, she was the only woman in the directing department. After making a number of short films and her first feature, she made a name for herself in 1965 with the collective film Little Pearls at the Bottom of the Water, a manifesto of the Czech New Wave, and came to prominence with Little Daisies a year later. She became the female figure of the movement, but refused to categorise her work, which she wanted to be universal. Sometimes mixing fiction and documentary, and adept at collages, her films have a cinéma-vérité feel. Her anarchist tones (sometimes considered nihilistic) brought her under censorship. However, after the crushing of the Prague Spring and the start of the period of ‘normalisation’, unlike some of her peers, she decided not to go into exile.

Lively, ironic and leaving a great deal to the actors' improvisation, Kalamita is a caustic satire on love, sex and social status. Under the guise of a harmless romantic comedy, the film was released in cinemas and audiences flocked to see it. But it was soon banned from cinemas in Prague, and will not be distributed outside the country.