Czech

When a Kyrgyz man decides to marry, he often abducts the woman he has chosen. Typically, he takes several friends, hires a car, stakes out his bride-to-be’s movements, and snatches her off the street. The woman is taken to the groom’s family home.

A delegation is then sent to her family to inform them of the kidnapping. The abducted woman is kept until someone from her family arrives to determine whether she will marry her kidnapper.

The level of consent and the familiarity of the bride with the groom vary. Sometimes the kidnappings are consensual – the bride is engaged to the groom and agrees to the kidnapping. This documentary follows the dramatic stories of four of non-consensual kidnappings.

An original portrayal of a small Czech village where – as the locals put it – an UFO has landed in the form of a kilometre-long silverish factory: a Korean Hyundai automobile plant. The village, hitherto famous mostly for its sauerkraut and the “Radegast” beer was thus turned into an industrial zone – the largest greenfield investment project in the Czech Republic’s history. Nonetheless, for a long time many farmers resisted selling the land upon which the factory was now standing. Eventually, they all succumbed under the pressure from the neighbours, and even the anonymous death threats. Combining the perspectives of seven characters, they have composed a portrayal of a place suddenly changed beyond recognition that is playful and chilling at the same time: a politically engaged absurd flick about a field that yields cars.