SKOKAN

Petr Václav ad-libbed his way across the European continent with a cast of amateur actors to bring us SKOKAN. The film begins with a quote from Denis Diderot’s novel “Jacques the Fatalist and His Master”, in which the main character’s decisions are all made by someone else. The eponymous hero here, a Czech Roma and ex-convict, believes himself to be the master of his own destiny however: after hearing a report about a certain film festival in Cannes, Skokan heads out to seek his fortune, as well as an ex-girlfriend who works somewhere in Europe as a prostitute. In spite of existential angst and language barriers, he sings love songs on the street and refuses to let go of his optimistic outlook.