Krakonošovo tajemství

Competitor in the territory! Competitor in the territory! I expected that the greedy feudal Prachař would receive a few lessons and that, following the evening fairy tale model, there might be a controlled provocation from the legendary spirit of the mountains. Instead, it’s more about Rýbrcoul’s jealousy and slightly sociopathic tendencies, which miraculously vanish only when ownership changes through the Jilemnice cadastral office. The sympathetic balance across several genre directions (primarily myth) and characters who don’t overact or speak like influencers promoting facial cosmetics stand out. Among them, Sokol’s ethnographer, who plays his role somewhat like a variation of the butterfly hunter Lord Castlepool, stands out. Some moments hinted that he might come out of the bathroom in a mossy bathrobe in the final scene at Krakonoš’s abode, but I understand that the audience isn’t quite ready for some things yet... (27/12/2022)

I realized that it is not possible to compare with a cult evening program. However, when one grows up thinking that Krakonoš is threatening and impulsive and Trautenberg is perpetually damning and shouting, then Krakonoš in the performance of David Švehlík seems lethargic like some philosophizing hermit and his main opponent, whom we would probably identify as the character of Prachař, is an unremarkable fool, like the one he plays in almost every last film. The boring plot, where the characters wander from nothing to nothing, is not saved by the charming female characters and Ondřej Sokol. Peter Bebjak should rather focus on crime, he is great at it. (25/12/2022)