MOMENTS

Young Anežka is conscientious and always willing to lend a hand – whether looking after her grandparents and her mentally ill mother, or helping her gruff father chop wood in the sparsely populated rural region of Vysočina. On top of that, she even sounds totally credible when she assures the married man she is having an affair with that she is not the slightest bit bothered when his wife interrupts their furtive rendezvous by phone. Anežka is constantly trying to satisfy everyone’s expectations. But the real question remains: what does she herself actually want out of life?
For her feature-film debut, director Beata Parkanová has constructed a mosaic composed of snapshots of stolen moments. Taken as a whole, the result is an empathetic portrait of a young woman who must find her way to herself, to her wishes, desires and boundaries as well. Jenovéfa Boková plays young Anežka, who bears the rants of her family and lover in silence for long stretches of the film. However, one can sense what’s seething beneath the surface through her subtle body language and facial expressions, namely a deep yearning to finally escape. Jenovéfa Boková received the Czech Film Critics’ Award for best actress for her performance in Chvilky.