"There are two women I've been visiting for quite some time now." "And I set my heart on making a film about them." "Of course, I found myself in the usual state prior to any film:" "Excited, but very uncertain and full of doubts." "This is Doctor Alena Koneèná, CSc, a macromolecular chemist, researcher at the Sigma Plant's Research Institute." "She is 40 years old, married and has a 15 year old son, Tom." "There's one thing I'd like to say." "I don't know what the document is supposed to be like, that's up to you, you are the professionals, but I don't want to serve as a prototype." "I'd be glad, if, after seeing the film anyone said - if one woman finds trying hard to achieve something worthwhile then I'll try it, too." "Dr Alena Koneèná is a researcher in the team which won:" "The Gold Medal at the International Exhibition of Patents and Inventions INVEX 82 for the development of the manufacturing technology for giant packing rings for oil and gas pipe lines," "Gold Medal at the Brno International Engineering Fair 82 and the Inventions' Exhibition Moscow 1983." "And this is Mrs Anežka Zlatníková." "What are you doing here?" "How did you get here?" "Mrs Zlatníková is 71 years old, married, has two sons, one daughter, seven grandchildren, one great grandchild." "Well, I'm not an expert, you're the expert, so you must have the right idea, the perfect idea." "But how do you imagine the film?" "Hm, everything for me is a blend of fantasy and the sort of ideas for poetry, whereas you are a realist..." "Mrs Anežka Zlatníková was a dressmaker originally, but for nearly 30 years she has been working on the railways and for 18 years she's been in the ticket office at Srbsko station near Karlštejn." "She started writing poems as a young girl." "Her collections of poems relate to different themes." "She's written so many she no longer knows herself how many there are." "Two women, two different fates, different lives." "QUESTIONS FOR TWO WOMEN" "But since I've known them, I've realised that it's only at first sight they seem to be opposites." "Unimportant, in the end it's not like that." "That's why I keep on asking them questions, trying to find in their reactions answers to my own problems." "Would you like some coffee?" "What project are you working on now?" "Well, more than one thing, but the really interesting problem is lining for induction flow metres." "And then there is another problem which specifically interests me." "You see, I've fallen in love with fluoroplastics, probably that doesn't mean a thing to you, the chemical terms is polytetrafluoroethylen..." "Polymers, it's an incredibly dynamic science, and although I knew practically nothing about it 10 years ago, today I wouldn't give up for anything." "When I talked about the problem of polytetrafluorethylene, that is what is used for teflon frying pans," "it's a question, it's really..." "stop, somehow I can't..." " Did you cut it?" " Yes, but I didn't mean to," "I wanted to get her moment of hesitation..." "I hadn't the faintest idea what to say." "My hair's untidy." "And I'm afraid something's burning on the stove..." "Don't worry, we'll wait..." "I can't concentrate, it's so awful here, an awful mess everywhere, but I've had no time." "I was at the station all the time," "I had one day off, yesterday, so I cleared up, but today I didn't manage to fix anything." "I apologize... you've caught me on the hop, that's all there is to it." "I'll get rid of this, I'll take it right out of here..." "You know, set yourself a target and work at it, it needn't be a scientist, one longing for the Nobel Prize or a sportsman out for an Olympic medal..." "I think, that... it was summed up very well by Franklin, that to stop thinking creatively is not very different from dying." "Into another pot..." "Mrs Zlatníková, why do you think your poems are cut out for films?" "Well, it would all be according to the message of the poems, but the shots would be different." "Look, take a goods' train, rolling along at its own definite speed, its own definite appearance." "That would be the pictorial accompaniment to my poem, the one called "Trains of Plenty"." "It's quite a long poem so you'd be able to see everything that's hidden in those wagons, cars and lots of other things, you'd see how much stuff we've really got, after all the railways carry our plentiful supplies and raw materials," "I think it's be nice, the trains would roll along and at the same time my poem would be recited." "The blue train rushes along, disappears in the clouds with a song," "Passes the rocks - with an echo it flies," "Follows the river down where the valley lies, transforming..." "Mrs Zatloukalová..." "If you had to describe your poetry, what would you say about it?" "In the beginning the poems were rather on the classical side." "I used to recite a lot at school so the school poems were my models." "Like at those gathering in memory of Master Jan Hus being burnt at the stake." "You know it's a risky thing to say those poems are good, but those are bad." "I have to go with the spirit of the times..." "How do you mean that?" "It means I have to change the style of my poems." "In what way do you want to change the style?" "For instance, some expressions should be less exact." "I should use parables." "Sort of abbreviated verse." "How can I explain it, certainly never too explicit a formulation." "Women get emotionally involved with a project and won't give up." "Men lose patience, and say, it's no use I've been getting nowhere for too long, I'll drop it..." "Do you know that meat's getting tender?" "Well, the place is in a frightful pickle, but in a normal flat I'd never be able to "spread my wings"." " The salad's not there?" " What?" " The salad's not there?" " No, none left." "Men are more successful, the fact that they change projects means they achieve more." "But it's women who stick at things." "I always believe that I'll manage it." "Start on anything and feeling pessimistic about it - it's probably better not to start on it at all." "In the attic I've got a set of poems called "Secrets of Youthful Dreams"." "But I don't think I need go up to get them." "Later perhaps..." "I really want to find the poems in that hard folder." "Wait, here's something I like, could you read me a bit?" "Oh, that one, "Mantled in Snow", verses from the Karlštejn Valley collection." " Read some of it." " But I'd like to find that folder, that hard folder, isn't that it?" "But read this one!" "It's love time once again which opens hearts," "Those mysterious confessionals full of sweet whispering," "Releasing secrets, promise and hopes of tender counterparts," "Generous in distribution of its offerings." "Everyone gets into the kind of state when his inner drive fails him." "It's even worse if one hasn't the will or desire to get going again." "In research it's the same." "Sometimes a person gives up before the final target is reached and all the previous work is wasted." "Well, if people didn't like my verses, I'd ask why," "I'd take advice from an expert and I'd rewrite the poems." "That wouldn't be difficult." "I'm lucky because my work is my hobby, but I would never sacrifice everything for my work and my family always comes first." "It's here at home, where I gather strength to carry on, knowing that everything I do, sewing, cooking or washing is for them, that they need me." "The point it, to show she makes her own clothes." "It's tricky, I wouldn't try it again." "The colours have got match and yet give variety..." " Did you embroider that?" " Yes." "What makes you write your poems?" "It gives me a new lease of life and to give others pleasure, too." "I often used to say I ought to keep a diary, at Srbsko railway station there's always something happening, more people travelling..." "That's two crowns, please." "Yes, we've had a burglar here, the window's been mended, but no grating yet." "It's awfully difficult putting your finger on the creative process." "Play acting's out, it's not easy even talking about it." "I mean, I arrive at a solution and then quite by chance, anywhere, say on a business trip, in a train, it occurs to me that I could tackle the problem from a completely different angle" "and usually the second idea turns out to be better." "I get ideas everywhere." "They cine exploding out of me, I don't even think about it." "She took the fate of the soothsayers in her hands..." "Apart from "Harbour of Certainty" there are topical and modern poems, and I've got military poems, 200 of those, I make copies." "How could I write, if I didn't see life going on all around me." "The railway gives me that, that's why I go to work." "Off with you, you naughty thing!" "Don't make things worse, when I've got so much work and hardly any space." "So as far as publishing goes, you've "missed the boat"." "I did." "Because the quantity." "I should have offered them before, not now, when there's so much competition." "But I'm still hoping, one of the publishers have some of my poems, they say have plans for them." "These poems are about medicinal herbs, 200 of them, there's a poem for every herb." "So far I've only offered the Publishers 150, when I asked about it, they said there's too many of them." "What did you put in this salad?" "It's excellent." "Mayonnaise." "And I added some cream." "That's why it's good." "They say I am like a St Bernard dog, who never lets go once he gets hold of something till everything's right." "Oh, yes, you need energy." "And you must keep going." "But I suppose one is born with that." "Poetry makes life beautiful, but first one has to do one's duty." "Karlštejn..." "Poetry, that's a dream." "A dream which flies to you and flies away again." "First of all children... bringing up children, that was the most important thing for me." "And now when the children come to see me, it's as if they bring part of my youth back, because usually the young people leave home, don't they?" "What about death?" "Are you afraid of death?" "No." "I think one can only be truly oneself with one's mother." "In life, at work, even with one's husband one pretends a bit, tries to appear better." "My mother had the gift of understanding, she could guide me, put me right, I miss that now a lot." "That was very nice, but I couldn't bring it into focus." "Let's see what it sounds like?" "Somebody ought to ask me about the links between science and the arts." "The director asks." "Shutter 4." "Well, of course science and art are connected, that's for sure." "If you want to create something you have to know something." "Otherwise it wouldn't mean anything any more." "Like the poem about "Mike the Station-master"." "I studied the regulations and duties of station-masters before I dared to write the poem." "But your marriage wasn't always as happy as it is now?" "Well, we suddenly found out that we were drifting apart, and the thing was, how to come together..." "Was it hard?" "It was the three most terrible months of my life." "I realised I could no longer lean on mum, I had to stand on my own feet and try to get my family back together again." "You have to work at a marriage every day and it really is hard going to make it what it ought to be." "I've still got photos from the time when we were young, when we were courting, when we were getting to know each other..." "If we argued it never lasted long." "It was lovely." "I often sit by my husband's beside and knit." "You might think she's just knitting and not thinking of anything." "But you'd never believe the marvellous ideas that occur to me while I'm knitting." "Now, there's a good symbiosis, a drop of water on glass, one can explain the surface tensions but appreciate the beauty of the rainbow colours in the drop of water, too." "I have hardly any time to spend on my poems." "I've plenty to do at the station, my husband's at my daughter's house, here in Raèice," "I do the washing and cooking, so I get pretty tired." "The main thing is to get a good night's sleep." "When I'm tired I can't write my poems or do anything properly." "One has to be good in shape, otherwise it's all to no avail." "I want to make people aware of things, show them the good and the bad, the fair means and the foul that's what I want to show people in my poems." "As for me, when I look at some of my collections and I've so many of them, so the memories come crowding in and I relive part of my life again." "Every day, I wonder what's going to happen and if everything turns out all right - as it usually does - that's all a person needs to be happy." "A sense of fulfilment." "One has accomplished something." "Happiness is having another chance to do something again and better, that I can begin again..."