directed by Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda, documentary, 87 min, eng subtitles
Czech Dream documents the largest consumer hoax the Czech Republic has ever seen. Filip Remunda and Vít Klusák, two promising Eastern Europe young documentary filmmakers, set out to explore the psychological and manipulative powers of consumerism by creating an ad campaign for a non-existent hypermarket.
The campaign (designed by a renowned advertising agency) involved television and radio spots, 400 illuminated billboards, 200,000 flyers promoting Czech Dream brand products, an advertising song, a website, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines. For two weeks, the streets of Prague were saturated with advertising for the fake hypermarket. The ads proclaimed: Don’t Go, Don’t Rush, Don’t Spend... but they ended up drawing over 4,000 people to turn up on the ‘opening day‘. On 31 May 2003, they arrived at a green field where, instead of a hypermarket, they found just the dream hypermarket’s façade (10m high and 100m wide).
Czech Dream is a funny and provocative look at the effects of rampant consumerism on a post-communist society. Czech Dream has also caused some controversy, provoking extreme reactions in the Czech people and media and even discussions in the Czech Parliament.
With the recent accession of the Czech Republic and other Eastern European countries into the EU, and, with people’s changing attitudes to consumerism and globalisation, it is equally relevant to capitalist societies all over the world.
Awards:
Brussels European Film Festival 2005 (Prize Be TV for Best Film)
48th San Francisco IFF 2005 (Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary Feature)
Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival 2005 (Best Non-Fiction Film Award)