BLACK PETER

In his first full-length feature Miloš Forman concentrates on the microcosm of the family. As the new apprentice in a supermarket, 16-year-old Peter is told to watch out for shoplifters – no easy task in the cramped aisles between the shelves. But his problems at work are nothing compared to those he faces at home, a tiny apartment where he is at the mercy of his parents. They riddle him with questions about his job, bombard him with good advice, and don’t take kindly to his sullen silence. With stark black-and-white contrasts and a camera that rarely strays far from the protagonists, the film conveys a sense of the gulf between young people in the 1960s and their parents.