"This is my father's tomb." "He died of spontaneous combustion." "There was nothing left of him." "There's no body in here." "But we still visit him and bring flowers." "I like coming here." "It is a beautiful cemetery." "I was sitting here eating a hamburger with my father when suddenly a flame shot out of his body." "Soon he'd completely burned up." "It all happened so suddenly." "It was right here on these rocks." "with a contribution from the Czech Cinema Fund" "in a film by Petr Zelenka and his friends" "YEAR OF THE DEVIL" "Good morning everyone and welcome to the group." "This is Jan Holman from Holland." "He's making a film about our center." "First off, Pavel wants to sing us a song." "I didn't consider myself an alcoholic." "But then I started forgetting the lyrics to my own songs." "I could tell that Karel was getting irritated with me." "It was he who talked me into going to the center." "My failed strength's past care, and sulphur tastes on my tongue, and faith, my faith has sprung, driving me insane." "In the flooding mortar's glare I stand a target losing ground;" "any clown can strike me down;" "my heart feels the pain." "I'm sadder mornings than night;" "my broken nose bleeds;" "the helpline can't help today." "I'm sadder mornings than night;" "punished on skinny knees;" "Old Wisdom breaks away, and again it's Tuesday." "Jan was an interesting guy who had been through a lot." "I thought his shooting could be part of my therapy." "Jarek, what do you like about drinking?" "That calm, that quiet when you lie drunk on the floor, and that calm enters you and you're all sprawled out there..." "You become the center of the universe." "Imagine there's nothing on earth but your bottle of vodka." " That's an interesting idea." " What would it mean?" "It would mean I have no kids." "I've never written any songs;" "I have nothing." "I'm a washed-up old wreck." "Plíhal started liking the place and wanted to stay." "They told him, You can't stay, you're not an alcoholic." "He envied us because we alcoholics could hide there while he had to return to face the outside world." "We had a band then that played funerals and weddings." "One day we were invited to play in the procession and I asked, Who died?" "And the priest said, Nobody." "This is a rehearsal funeral for Mr. Plíhal." "And sure enough, there he was watching us from the forest." "That's how I first met Karel Plíhal." "They let me out, but then Karel started to be really difficult." "He'd given up drinking but had developed phobias instead that were even worse." "He insisted on driving even though he didn't have a license." "And he started liking the car so much that he refused to get out of it." " Let's do the sound check." " I'm coming." "Come on then." " I'm coming right now." " You are?" " Close the door;" "I'm cold." " I'm cold too." "Come on!" "Go inside then." "I'll sit here for a bit and join you later." "I don't think you're coming." "I am." "I wanted to play the next song with Karel Plíhal..." "But he can't get out of the car." "So when you leave tonight you can say hello to him." "He's too scared to come in." "I'm scared, too." "But he must be very scared these days." "And since he's so scared the next song is for him." "I was shocked when I saw the windows covered with newspaper." "I wanted to cancel a TV appearance he'd arranged, but it was impossible on such short notice." "Karel Plíhal is here with me tonight." "Good evening." "Mr. Plíhal, what has pleased you recently?" "Maybe I didn't ask that clearly enough." "What has given you the greatest pleasure in the past few days?" "Has anything pleased you lately?" "This is a live show." "Will you please answer?" "There must be something you'd like to tell our viewers." "Mr. Plíhal, are you going to answer my question?" "Well, then, let's move on to the next item." "Are you okay?" "Karel had stopped speaking." "We thought it was a temporary condition." "But it lasted a year." "Let's try and read some of the letters on the board." "Repeat after me: 'A. '" "Mr. Plíhal, look at the board." "Consonants and vowels make up words." "We put 'A' here and we get the word 'Mama. '" "'Mama. ' Does that sound familiar?" "We tried this method with Karel but it didn't work." "Then one day his doctor called and said, Karel spoke!" "I asked, What did he say?" "And the doctor replied," "Mr. Plíhal wants you to play with a band called Czechomor." "In the early nineties I had some small parts in some films." "This gave us the chance to play at wrap parties." "Franta's contract always stated that the band would play at the premiere" "of every film he acted in." "The filmmakers agreed." "It seemed a good deal at first but all those gigs were weird." "I wanted a better job." "A friend suggested playing at a hotel." "I thought maybe in the bar, but it turned out differently." "Every hotel elevator has, of course, elevator music." "But you have to pay royalties for it." "This one hotel wanted to save money by not paying royalties." "He offered me a world tour with the Czech Symphony." "I mistook him for another crazy guy staying at the hotel." "Then somebody said, Hey, that's Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke." "I asked friends what "Czechomor" could be." "I even looked it up in the dictionary but that was no help." "Then someone told me their singer, Franta Èerný, was working the door at a cabaret in Prague." "It all sounded a bit ridiculous, but the doctors said it might actually help Plíhal speak." "That night I had to cover for one of the boys who had to be taken to the hospital." "I always admired Nohavica and hoped to meet him." "This wasn't how I'd imagined it." "He stood on stage and lip-synced "You Smell of Rain, My Love."" "It was an important text I wrote in 1980." "So I decided to take it as a sign." "I thought he'd be furious because I'd messed up his song, but instead he asked me and Czechomor to play with him." "That was really a big surprise." "We'd always just played weddings and funerals." "Suddenly, we had the choice of playing with the symphony, or with Nohavica." "We simply couldn't believe it." "We chose Nohavica." " Karel, please, be more precise." " I can't hear you." "We didn't take the concert preparations very seriously." "N..." "T..." "A..." "H..." "Nohavica's Theory of the Alcoholic Hill." "It looks funny but it's not." "The hill..." "An ordinary Czech citizen stands at the bottom." "He drinks like a fish and goes up." "As long as he's going up everything's okay." "So where's the problem?" "At the summit." "It's the breaking point." "After that you're finished." "Doctors can't help you, psychiatrists can't help you, you can't help yourself..." "It's the point of no return." "Yet some can drink all their lives and nothing bad happens." "Why?" "Because their hill is very high." "They can drink from the cradle to the grave and keep going up." "Unfortunately, no one knows the height of his own hill." "Jarek kept giving us lectures, mainly about alcohol." "So we had no time to rehearse his songs." "That's why the first gig ended up being so bad." "The first gig wasn't very good." "The floor lights set my costume on fire." "I tried to get Jarek to stop playing but he just ignored me." "They insisted on wearing folk costumes, but they're flammable." "I told them, This isn't a wedding." "Wear jeans, I said, but they wouldn't listen." "I have seen a lot, but this..." "Let's put the lights somewhere else next time." "It is not about the lights..." "Jaz Coleman was the only one who told us to keep playing." "I still don't know if he was serious or not." "The main difference between the first gig and the later ones was that Franta learned to play electric guitar." "The biggest difference was that we hung up the lights." "They were above our heads so nothing could catch on fire." "We discovered we needed a different lineup on stage." "Franta here, Karel here, Michal here..." "Franta, you cover this area, about 35 degrees worth." "Karel, you monitor the same area on the right." "I'll cover the middle section." "And Radek, you take care of the back." "Unlike them, I'd never had the courage to play on the street." "They were strong enough to fight for a place on stage." "They were wonderful." "I remember that tall, pretty girls started coming backstage." "They wanted to talk to us but Jarek threw them out." "Then suddenly Plíhal was standing in the doorway." "Hi." "Hello." "You talk?" "He talks!" "Why shouldn't I talk?" "We thought playing with us was a musical experiment for Jarek." "We hadn't realized he'd done it to help Plíhal;" "like it was some weird therapy." "We were saying goodbye to each other after the concert when Jarek said, What about playing some more gigs?" "That was a shocker." "From the start people asked us, What kind of a guy is Nohavica?" "I realized that I didn't know what to tell them." "Then we continued touring and I thought," "Good, this is a chance to find out who he really is." "What is Nohavica's relationship to women?" "I never thought he had one." "Why exactly did he chose to play with you?" "That's a complicated story." "It was because of Karel, right?" "Karel Plíhal." "Journalists just used us as a way to get to Nohavica." "They seemed to be interested in us but kept asking about him." "We can divide men into boxersmen or briefsmen." "Which is Mr. Nohavica?" "I don't understand." "I'd like to know if Mr. Nohavica wears boxers or briefs." "Sorry, no comment." "He wears boxers." "What do you mean?" " A guy like him wears boxers." " But I saw him in briefs." " You and your briefs." " Not me." "He was wearing them." " What does he wear?" " Boxers." " Briefs." " Don't yell at me!" "Which is it?" " Briefs." "Let's bet." "Why?" "I know he wears boxers." " You don't listen." " You don't listen either." "You say briefs, he says boxers." "What does it matter?" "A guy like him just can't wear skimpy little briefs." "He wears big ones." "What about the songs he writes?" "A big guy like him can't write a big song in skimpy briefs." "Maybe not in skimpy ones, but he'd write in big ones just fine" " So what does he wear then?" " Boxers." "Maybe he doesn't wear anything." "Maybe he goes freestyle." "What do you mean freestyle?" "What does he wear?" "Freestyle means no boxers." " Freestyle can also mean no briefs." " That's nonsense!" " You saw him go freestyle?" " I saw him in briefs." " You and your briefs!" " Freestyle or briefs then?" " You're like hornets." "I saw what I saw." " What did you see?" "But before you said..." "He might go freestyle when no one sees him." " On and on about your briefs." " His briefs, not mine." " God knows whose briefs they were." " Must have been his..." "You think he wears someone else's?" "I realized then we knew nothing at all about Jarek." "The point was not boxers or briefs... or whatever." "We didn't even know if he had a wife and kids." "We saw him every day but we knew nothing about him." " Do you like Jarek Nohavica?" " A lot." "He's a great guy." "He's the reason why I decided not to emigrate." "I like him." "He's the only adult who ever caressed my head." "Do you like Jarek Nohavica?" " You're from Holland?" " Yes." " You came to see Jarek?" " Yes, he's wonderful." " But you can't understand the lyrics." " It doesn't matter." " I thought they were important." " Why are you here then?" " Do you like Jarek Nohavica?" " I know all his songs." " All his songs?" " Maybe not all of them, but most." "I used to just sing them, but now I understand them, too." "I thought Jan hung around us just to pick up girls." "But Jarek said Jan wanted to catch him drinking again." "Jan, film me drinking." "Get me in profile, okay?" "I think Jan's here because of the girls." "No, he isn't." "Nod your camera if you're here for the drinking." "The gigs started to be cool but one thing made me nervous:" "the way Franta kept watching me all the time." "Jan couldn't understand how I could stop drinking without believing in God like everyone else at A.A." "I enjoyed the thought that if I ever start drinking again," "I'd at least make one person happy." " Here you go." " Thanks." " This too." " That'll be 120." "It's not for me..." "It's for the boys." "I saw the headline when I was hiding the bottle in the paper." "Karel Kryl dead." "LEGENDARY SONGWRITER DIES" "We knew Kryl was a big influence on Nohavica." "We were afraid it might make him start drinking again." "But instead it just gave him energy." "Morning breaks into darkness, I touch my wrist as I wake;" "If it beats then it means I've got one more lucky break." "Or maybe I'm dead instead and my shoes have been shined," "Still, day after day I awake feeling blind." "There's no why, there's no what, there's no where to be found;" "There's no cause, there's no one to hold me to the ground." "A gaunt Don Quixote sits astride an old steed," "And since God is deaf there's no reason to plead." "I play back the messages crammed on the machine." "Bad news comes each morning, like a cop in a bad dream." "Have I been awake or sleeping all the while?" "I suppose I should laugh but can't shed my Mickeymouse smile." "Morning should be banned." "Is this where you composed "Mickey Mouse"?" "No, I composed "When I Was Drafted" here." " I want the room, not the number." " They changed them." "I wanted to show you 313 where I wrote an important song." "215... 201..." "Where is my 313, dammit?" " Will Jarek start drinking again?" " No." " How do you know?" " I just do." "It isn't difficult to stop drinking." "What is difficult?" "It's hard to stop speaking." "I couldn't do it." "Why should one stop speaking?" "To hear the melodies in the people around us." "The melodies people sing?" "When you're near people you can hear the melodies they give off." "They rise out of them almost like an aroma." "If you stop speaking you'll hear your own melody." " Stop speaking?" " Yeah, stop speaking." "When I was about 13 I was playing chess with my brother." "He was five years younger than me and had nothing to bet with." "So he told me he had his own guardian angel." "If I won he said he'd give me the angel." " Did you win?" " Yes, but he gave me nothing." "That's how it always goes." "The tour was exhausting and we were all worn out." "And then Jan came up to me and said, I've got it!" "Got what?" "I asked." "And he said, Plíhal is an angel." "I thought, Fine, let's all go crazy and get it over with." "We encountered some really remarkable things on tour, but Franta wasn't interested." "He had his headphones on listening to those old tapes." "I was convinced the key to Jarek was in his early songs;" "songs he wrote before becoming famous." "These were the old classics no one knew." "I asked him why we didn't play "I Have So Little Blood Left."" "But he couldn't remember it." "So Plíhal and I played it for him and he really liked it." "It was funny to have to teach him his own songs." "That's good." " You wrote it." " I know." "It sounds good." " You forgot it, didn't you." " No." "I have so little blood left, I have so little blood left," "I have so little blood left, but it still drips out my mouth." "After grass covers me as I rot on the field," "Who'll take my place?" "Who'll carry my shield?" "Jarek had loyal fans but they were a bit dead." "But now their eyes suddenly shone brightly, and they looked as if they'd come to pray to him." "I stood in the smoke as the furnace flames rose," "Night shone from my eyes, fire shot from my nose." "Whether sun blazed or evening came on," "With brows knit in knots I stared the killers down." "Rich Jews to the fore and aristocrats aft," "While I, filthy miner, leapt from the shaft." "There were beautiful moments but we kept thinking," "What's all this going to cost us?" "Playing with Nohavica is great but what do we give in exchange?" "That night on stage I saw the guy from the cabaret," "the one I'd stood in for when he was taken to the hospital." "I called his parents." "They told me he'd died that morning." "I came in and saw Franta and Jan praying." "It was the first sign something strange was happening." "People started confiding in us." "First beautiful women, which was okay." "Then those that were not so beautiful." "Finally, men were telling us their problems." "That wasn't so great." "Can I confide in you?" "I have a girlfriend; she's 27." "Look, this is her." "I love her but there's a problem..." " What about our food?" " This will only take a minute." "Don't worry, our chef is excellent..." "She wants to get married and I want to stay single." "But if we don't marry her mother will throw us out." "So the problem is how to say no." "I've had enough of this." "It's simple." "Move into a new place away from her mother..." "They were used to playing weddings and funerals." "But suddenly there were thousands in the audience." "They were under stress and it started to change them." "The biggest change was when Franta started looking like me." "Maybe he didn't notice it, but, still, he refused to shave." "I always liked Jarek's songs, but then I realized there was something more to them." "The strange things that were happening around us were happening because we sang about them." "The songs started to scare me." "The most frightening was "Comet."" "I saw a comet streak across the sky," "I wanted to serenade her but she kept streaming by," "Streaming like a doe in the field of the skies," "And I was left there with gold in my eyes." "I buried the gold in the ground by a beech," "The next time she comes we'll be long out of reach," "We'll be long gone, oh, vanity, oh, pride," "I wanted to sing to the comet I spied;" "About water, about grass, about trees," "And about death that cannot be appeased;" "about love and betrayal, about the world, about this place we make and mould." "I know now that miracles were happening back then." "But at the time I just thought they were ordinary concerts." "At a heavenly station filled with jingling cars," "Sir Kepler wrote down the laws of the stars;" "He looked in a glass till he found what he sought:" "All the mysteries that we find too dearly bought." "The great and the ancient, nature's secret decrees," "That root linked to branch is the nature of trees," "That human is human by birth and blood ties," "And the blood of our hope ever wanders the skies." "I came backstage and the guys said Jan had stopped speaking." "This didn't surprise us." "It seemed okay since we knew Plíhal had taught him how." "But then we did gradually start worrying about him." "Jan was not just a man with a camera." "He was a man seeking God." "He was seeking Him through Alcoholics Anonymous, seeking Him in his film, as well as in the songs." "But he couldn't find Him." "It made me realize how futile songs are." "Songs can give hope, but they can't supply answers, nor can they bring salvation." "Songs cannot grant absolution." "God Almighty," "I do not understand the world around me." "I am told people have melodies inside them which I cannot hear." "Please, make my hearing better so that I may hear them." "I cannot hear you, God." "This country is so terribly silent." "At the last gig they all came to say good bye." "Angels or ghosts." "Four or five of them." "They were beautiful." "We left space for them to one side of the stage." "Maybe the audience couldn't see them." "Maybe they thought we were nuts leaving so much space there." "But we knew it was the right thing to do." "When Jarek stopped performing we thought we'd have to go back to funerals and weddings." "But Jaz said the offer with the orchestra was still open." "So we began rehearsing with him." "When the tour with Jarek ended we wanted things to be normal." "We wanted to get away from all the weird stuff that'd happened." "But with Jaz things started getting really wild." "Jaz kept saying 'desert' over and over." "Only later did I understand what he meant." "With Jarek we'd tried to stay in touch with reality." "But with Jaz it all blurred." "We could no longer tell dream from reality." "It was really cool." "A superb concert." "That night we were supposed to sign a record deal." "Then someone turned on the TV and Jarek was on television." "Nohavica has long cultivated the image of the mysterious man who speaks to us through his songs." "But are these songs really his?" "In this shocking footage by Dutch filmmaker Jan Holman" "Nohavica admits that he never wrote the songs credited to him." "I've never written any songs;" "I have nothing." "I'm a washed-up old wreck." "MYSTERIOUS "BOXERSMAN"" "The question is, whose songs have we been listening to?" "Were they written by someone else?" "If so, by whom?" "Who did Nohavica steal the songs from the whole nation has been singing for the past 20 years?" "After they broadcast the program people started asking," "Is Nohavica really such a loser?" "Did he really steal his songs?" "We told them not to believe it." "But I was shocked by how many people did believe it." "The problem was that people knew so little about him." "When anyone lied about him everyone fell for it." "I thought Jarek's drinking was just a fashionable put-on." "But I got worried when Plíhal told us Jarek was at the center." "I assumed he was not there as a patient." " Karel, come on." " I am coming." "Come on!" "Karel, come." "I'll just sit here a bit and then I'll come." "He's not coming." " Come on." " Sure thing..." "All of a sudden Karel burst into tiny lightning balls which fell into the grass and gradually went out." "We just stood there staring because we couldn't believe it." "At times like that all you can do is stare." "When I saw what happened to Plíhal it all became clear." "Everything that had happened before that was disputable." "But this was a true miracle, witnessed by four people." "I finally understood the tour with Jarek and the rituals with Jaz." "It was all meant to be." "This was a miracle..." "and a pretty cool way to go." "I envied Karel's ability to leave when we have to stay and sign a deal to make three records in five years." "We kept looking for Jarek's secret, but we never found it." "But it was obvious:" "Plíhal was an angel who'd gone off to heaven." "I don't know if Karel Plíhal was an angel." "For me he was an ordinary man." "Someone I'm going to miss." "It's as simple as that." "English subtitles by John Brent, Petr Zelenka and Jiøí Popel" "Many people disappeared in Argentina during the seventies, and everyone thought it was for political reasons." "But I'm convinced that many of them were in fact victims of spontaneous combustion." "Jirka, this is Jan Holman." "He's making a film about us." "Two fine girls did walk one day, walk one day, walk one day." "Hunters met them on the way, on the way, two men." "Where're you lassies going to, going to, going to?" "Which of you will love me true?" "Love me to the end?" " So, what does he wear?" " Boxers." " Briefs." "Boxers for sure." "What's the matter?" "Guys, I know a great new game:" "Piglets." "You get two piggies, and you throw them." "If it lands on all fours, five points." "If it's on its back, five points too." "If it lands on it's head..." "that's ten." "Or on its ear-the famed 'boiled pork' - 15, okay?" "And if both land the same way you get four times the amount." " Super, eh?" " 60, right?" "Well, you throw them..." "See..." " What's that?" " Those are the piglets." "Hey..." "Now I'm telemarking..." "Hey, look..." "Come on, Franta, Let's show him a thing or two..." " Karel, want to see a chick?" " Show him." " Hold on..." "Go, chick, go!" "That's a cute chick." "Wait, I'll pan down." " Yeah, good, and now this..." " This'll shock him..." " Oh, man!" " Chick!" "Yeah...!" "It'll be great." "He'll be totally floored." "Filmmaker!" "Hey, Radek, let's get this one." " Why?" "It's a good one, look..." " Yellow's better." " This is white; it's good too." " It's heavy." "Yeah, that's good." "That one won't measure a thing." " Why wouldn't it?" " White measures better." "How could it matter?" "Look..." "Does it measure?" "It measures." " Yellow's better." " Try pulling it out..." " Look, it's all scrunched here." " It's lighter." " Try this one." "You can tell it's quality." "It measures the same." " No way." " I want yellow..." " I'm not backing down." " Yellow is better, lighter..." " White is better..." "White is better!" "Radek, pull it tauter..." "Good..." "I'm coming over to you." "Stay where you are." "Let's not lose it." "A bit more..." "Got it?" "Some slack..." "I've still got a meter to go." " 50." " How long?" " 50." " Not bad, eh?" "Well, reel it in." " What did you smear them with?" " Nothing." "They're just shining." "It won't come off." "Do you sense anything?" "Yeah, fish." "Did you eat fish?" "Look... they're shining..." "They're not shining..." "Jan, come here..." "His hands are shining." "That's weird." "See." "Come on already." "Where?" "To the doctor?" "Nonsense." " So where?" " Follow me." " Coming..." "Like for work." "Friends, I'd like to show you what we call the alcoholic hill." "Here, on this side, a person is happy." "He's climbing the hill, getting blasted..." "Here... is the BZ:" "The Break Zone." "Here, friends, is the BP:" "The Break Point." "Until you get here, there's a way back." "Every hill is of a certain height..." "Each of you has a different height." "You, three years..." "You, two years..." "You, two months." "After the Break Point..." "there's only falling." "That means..." "a long, long fall." "And just a toe tag at the bottom." "Women's hills are about this high." "You're much better off." "You all have this part." "Nobody knows how long it is." "Not you..." "Not you..." "Not me."