Revival

Smoke were once the Czech Rolling Stones,with the fact that they sang in English sufficing to offend state cultural attachés.Add to that the personal quarrels and it was only a matter of time before Smoke broke up. Forty years on the once bandmates meet again at a funeral, where enterprising keyboardist Milan finds the inspiration to go about reforming the band.Together with a shady producer he concocts a plan, which comes complete with a numbe rof white lies: Thus Milan tells everyone that guitarist Vašek is terminally ill and has one last wish, namely that the bandget together for a reunion. Featuringplayful performances from some of the Czech Republic's most popular actors from the past twenty years, with particular praise going to Boleslav Polívka as Vašekand the, as always, wonderfully gnarly Miroslav Krobot as Karel, the film is bothcomical and free of a sense of nostalgia.It was songwriter Karel who once essentiallycaused the group to split when he married the controlling hippie Yvonne. Neverthelessa reunion tour comes to pass, harmony however is undermined by the numerous sources of conflict which director AliceNellis almost lovingly exposes. REVIVAL,her sixth feature film, is the director'smost amusing and entertaining film todate, evidenced by the 220,000 viewers who helped the film make it into this year's Czech film top five.