Až do města Aš

Dorotoka wants to study at university after her A-Levels. Her parents however insist that she find work as soon as possible in order to earn some money. Given the lack of job opportunities in eastern Slovakia the young Roma woman takes up employment as a seamstress in Aš, a border town in the west of the Czech Republic. There, together with many other women from eastern Europe, she works in a miserable factory making the same hand movements day after day. Her new dwelling, a derelict residential home, is equally uninviting. In addition her boyfriend Dodi, who had promised to follow her to the Czech Republic, appears to have forgotten her. Dorotka doesn't have high expectations and yet she hoped for more from life than this. Then the factory lays off the majority of the work force, including Dorotka and her friend Sylvia. As foreign nationals they're not entitled to state support and her parents remain as intransigent as before. Dorotka is no longer sure what to do, Sylvia however knows one way out: a much older man from Germany who regularly crosses the border in the search of a companion.

In this, her feature film début, the director displays an outstanding sense of authenticity, as well as sympathy for her fallen heroines, personified by the brilliant amateur actors. The setting is reminiscent of Miloš Forman's LÁSKY JEDNÉ PLAVOVLÁSKY, the only difference being that there is more at stake for today's young women relative to the blonde Andula of the sixties: it's not just a question of securing the right man, but also existence itself.