Story from a Housing Estate

A new housing estate is being built on the edge of Prague. Although the building work has not yet been finished, people are already moving into the flats. Provisional roads made from pieces of boarding snake their way through the blocks of concrete, droning construction vehicles and sludge pits, the residents balancing on them when doing their errands. Day-to-day life begins after a fashion anyway though, albeit in a makeshift way. In the middle of this confusion, a taxi driver is looking for directions but no-one seems to know the street he's looking for. Grandfather Honda is sitting in the back of the taxi and wants to visit his children and grandchildren in the new district. The old man is from a small village and finds it difficult to take in everything he finds here. His path is constantly crossed by a little boy, Pepik, who seems to thrive on the whole chaos. He actually enjoys getting involved in complicated situations and then making them even more complicated. Pepik and Grandpa Honda represent two opposing poles in the tangle of interpersonal relations that unfold before the backdrop of the half-finished construction site. (Berlinale)