There have been numerous studies of the experience of the Eastern Bloc after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but no book or academic paper comes as close to conveying the dizzying cycle of elation and trauma that gripped the erstwhile Soviet peoples as does Ctibor Smolák’s film, Sláva trylkování slepic.
Within the frame of a musical (perhaps a reflexive choice, made in an effort to evade a government censorship which no longer existed), Smolák presents a profound and meaningful portrait of a nation unmoored.
Sláva trylkování slepic relates how the people of Czechoslovakia, who find themselves in a state of anomie as their customary way of life disappears, are lead by a group of Czech Airline employees into the new culture of instant gratification.
This seemingly miraculous transformation of an old and parochial society is accomplished by means of Smolák’s brilliant conception of the character of the Chief Air Hostess. By achieving a state of ecstatic transcendence and becoming Baba Yaga, the monstrous magic chicken of Slavic paganism, the Chief Air hostess provides the hermeneutical charisma necessary to convince a population of cynical Eastern Europeans to give themselves over wholeheartedly to Western values.
In 1993, in an interview in Cinemast!, Smolák was asked by Ramakrishna Aldin, “In The Glory of Warbling Hens are you showing us a choir of heavenly angels lead by Michael, Gabriel, and the Virgin Mary, or a mob of succubae lead by two demons in thrall to Lilith?”
“I wonder about that myself,” the filmmaker responded.
Within the frame of a musical (perhaps a reflexive choice, made in an effort to evade a government censorship which no longer existed), Smolák presents a profound and meaningful portrait of a nation unmoored.
Sláva trylkování slepic relates how the people of Czechoslovakia, who find themselves in a state of anomie as their customary way of life disappears, are lead by a group of Czech Airline employees into the new culture of instant gratification.
This seemingly miraculous transformation of an old and parochial society is accomplished by means of Smolák’s brilliant conception of the character of the Chief Air Hostess. By achieving a state of ecstatic transcendence and becoming Baba Yaga, the monstrous magic chicken of Slavic paganism, the Chief Air hostess provides the hermeneutical charisma necessary to convince a population of cynical Eastern Europeans to give themselves over wholeheartedly to Western values.
In 1993, in an interview in Cinemast!, Smolák was asked by Ramakrishna Aldin, “In The Glory of Warbling Hens are you showing us a choir of heavenly angels lead by Michael, Gabriel, and the Virgin Mary, or a mob of succubae lead by two demons in thrall to Lilith?”
“I wonder about that myself,” the filmmaker responded.