UP AND DOWN aka HOREM PaDEM
Year: 2004
USA: Sony Pictures Classics
Cast: Jiri Machacek, Petr Forman, Emilia Vasaryova, Natasa Burger, Jan Triska, Ingrid Timkova, Kristına Liska-Bokova, Pavel Liska, Marek Daniel, Jan Budar, Zdenek Suchı, Jaroslav Dusek, Vaclav Havel, Pavel Forman, Ester Geislerova, Martin Huba, Petr Jarchovskı, Marie Mravcova
Director: Jan Hrebejk
Country: Czech Republic
Language: Czech (English subtitles)
USA: 108 mins
USA Rated: R for language, sexual content and brief violence
USA Release Date: 25 February 2005 (Limited Release - Los Angeles and New York)
(in Czech)
Synopsis
In the dead of the night, near the Czech-Slovak border, two smugglers discover their truckload of illegal Indian immigrants have left a baby behind.
In a small Prague apartment, Franta (Jiri Machacek) and Mila (Natasa Burger) dream of having a child, but Franta - on probation because of his soccer hooliganism past - is not allowed to adopt, and Mila is unable to conceive. After cashing in on her savings, Mila decides to buy a baby from a pawnshop that fronts a den of thieves and pickpockets.
Meanwhile, an unusual family reunion is taking place: Academy professor Otto (Jan Triska) collapses while teaching, prompting his estranged son Martin (Petr Forman, son of director Milos) to return to Prague from Australia to see his father and his mother, Vera (Emilia Vasaryova), long separated from Otto whom she still pines for. Otto is now living with the beautiful and much younger Hana (Ingrid Timkova), who works in a refugee aid center helping immigrants to adjust to their new lives.