Marriage Stories, 20 Years Later (2006)
Directed by Helena Třeštíková
Run Time - 95 min. |
Countries - Czechia |
MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Mark Deming
A Czech couple shares the challenges and disappointments of two decades of matrimony in this documentary. In 1980, filmmaker Helena Trestikova filmed a profile of Vaclav Strnad and Ivana Sykorov, two college students in their early twenties who had wed a year before and had recently welcomed a baby into their lives. As Vaclav and Ivana try to keep up with their studies while looking after their child in a cramped apartment, the couple displays a optimism about their future despite their taxing circumstances. In 1999, Trestikova paid a visit to Vaclav and Ivana on the occasion of their twentieth anniversary, and found that not everything had worked out as they had hoped; Vaclav's career in architecture didn't pan out and now he runs a furniture store that's slowly going broke while the stress of looking after their five children has pushed Ivana to the edge of a nervous breakdown. Manzelske Etudy Po 20 Letech (aka Marriage Stories: Twenty Years Later) was originally produced for Czech television, but was also screened at a number of international film festivals, including the 2006 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.