Buttoners [Knoflíkári]

Petr Zelenka, Czech Republic, 1997, 102 minutes

Buttoners is a hilariously original black comedy, which although not well known over here, became a cult classic in the Czech Republic, and even won a Rotterdam 1998 Tiger Award.

Comprised of six stories which gradually unfold into one, Buttoners features some of the most peculiar scenes you're likely to see on the big screen, including a man with a very bizarre perversion (clue: it's something to do with the title of the film); a psychiatrist addicted to his executive breath freshener - which leads to appalling consequences; and a hen-pecked husband whose only solace lies in spitting at trains from a rather unusual angle...

Not all of the scenes are set in the Czech Republic - the film starts off in 1945, in and above Japan, but even this manages to tie in with the other plot-lines. Here the camera cuts between two scenes: the first set in the aeroplane where two pilots prepare to drop the bomb on Hiroshima, and the second in a teahouse in Kokura where the occupants grumble - and more - about the terrible weather, little knowing that this is the only thing saving them from the same fate as Hiroshima.

If you've always thought of Czech films as being downright weird and impossible to follow, then go and see Buttoners and surprise yourself. Sure, it's pretty offbeat and surreal, but with its hilarious dialogue and visual jokes, combined with the way it all fits together so neatly, Buttoners is actually very easy to watch.

Review by Kim Woodruff
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2001