René on AllMovie

Career criminal and imaginative writer René Plášil serves as the subject of documentary filmmaker Helena Treštíková's entry into the 2008 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. A man who truly seems to have no luck in life, Plášil bounces between freedom and incarceration over the course of twenty years as Treštíková's camera captures his thoughts on such historical events as the Velvet Revolution, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, and the Czech Republic's accession to the EU. Despite the fact that Plášil confesses that he often feels like a prostitute for selling his life story to the camera, the visits from Treštíková's film crew and the letters he exchanges with the director are often the only contact this hapless desperado has with the outside world while serving extended stints behind bars.