GRUNT: A Chronicle of Folk Cruelty

55 min, in Czech

A production inspired by the dark history of our border regions, Šumava villages around the town of Vimperk and the events of the Second World War, which are recorded in local chronicles.

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The fact that after the Second World War there were many abandoned German homesteads left in the border area, which the cottagers saved from destruction, contributed to the boom in cottage industry. The phenomenon of the so-called second home has replaced the original inhabitans, but something of their heritage remains in the frozen walls, in the bricked-up cellar, in the dark shed for firewood, in the musty clothes we wear at the cottage. Who or what is a cottager?

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An object as vast as a cottage, vast in its material and time, necessarily contains secrets and myths. Some can be communicated in words, others are stored in the remains and objects that inhabit the cottage. A person is subject to the influence of his surroundings, in this case he becomes a cottager and writes himself into the local chronicle. As a part of it, as a fictional character, he will be viewed by other cottagers - current, future and will be measured against those of the past.

In a world affected by global cooling, post-apocalyptic sledders wander abandoned buildings in search of remnants of heat sources. There is enough wood and a stove in the well-stocked cottage, we will settle here, we will live here for a while.