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Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays
South Shore Road
Gateshead NE8 3BA
United Kingdom
54.969141279369, -1.5983035415411
Baltic Cinema: Panelstory, or How a Housing Development is Born (adv 12)
Věra Chytilová Czechoslovakia 1979 1hr 36mins
Thursday 19 November | 18:30
£6/£4.50* per person
A brand-new restoration of famed Czech director Věra Chytilová hilarious satire Panelstory, which brings her lightness of touch to a subject which touches us all: do you help to shape your environment or are you shaped by it?
Life is a construction site for the tenants of the only partially finished prefab housing development in Prague. Between the buildings, young mothers struggle to push their prams through mounds of mud. And things are not any better inside.
Věra Chytilová’s film depicts one day in that construction chaos through the eyes of a handful of people of various ages who must deal with the hodgepodge of permanently makeshift solutions in what was conceived as a ‘garden city’.
In 2002, the director said: “It’s not a critical reaction to the regime; it’s more actually a view of human behaviour.” Nonetheless, her amusing social satire was held back by the authorities and not shown in Czechoslovakia until 1981. (Berlinale)
‘Wonderfully enjoyable, hilarious, and touching all at once … We find Chytilová at the height of her powers as a filmmaker, combining her characteristically wild shooting style, farcical elements, wonderful use of music, and intricate storytelling abilities’ —Kay Armatage, TIFF
