''Czech Dream'' () is a 2004

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by two

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

film directors, Vít Klusák and

Filip Remunda Filip Remunda (born 1973 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech film director, cinematographer and producer. He is best known for co-directing the 2004 documentary comedy '' Czech Dream'' (). Biography Remunda graduated from the documentary film ...

. It recorded a large-scale hoax perpetrated by Klusák and Remunda on the Czech public, culminating in the opening event of a fake

hypermarket A hypermarket or superstore is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full grocery lines and general merchandise. In ...

in the

Letňany Letňany is a cadastral area of Prague, Czech Republic. It was founded in 1307 and became part of Prague in 1968. It has been included in Prague 18 since 2001, having previously been in the local government district of Prague-Letňany, and it ...

neighborhood of

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. The film was their graduation project for film school.

Concept

Remunda and Klusák invented the ''Český sen'' ("Czech dream") hypermarket and created a massive

advertising campaign An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ide ...

around it. Posing as businessmen, the two film students managed to persuade an ad agency and a public relations agency to create a campaign for them. Billboards appeared on Czech highways, and 200,000 pamphlets were distributed in

. A

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...

was recorded, and there was a series of television commercials. The advertising campaign slogans were "don't come" and "don't spend", etc. Still, the filmmakers succeeded in attracting more than 3000 shoppers to an empty plain for their "grand opening" on 31 May 2003. What looked like a huge building from a distance was actually only a canvas facade backed by

scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other human-made structures. Scaffolds are widely u ...

. When the "customers" finally realized that they had been deceived, they reacted in different ways. Some understood the filmmakers' message, some tried to take it optimistically ("At least we had some fresh air"), but most were angry, and many decided to blame the government. Still, there was no violence against the authors.

Prizes

The film won prizes at festivals in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

Jihlava Jihlava (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. Jihlava is the capital of the Vysočina Region, situated on the Jihlava (river), Jihlava River on the historical border between Moravia and Bohemia. Historically, Jihla ...

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

Århus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

, and

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

References

External links

''Czech Dream'': official site of the film in English

''Czech Dream'': official site of the film in Czech

Economist.com article

''Czech Radio'' article

''Prague Post'' article

CzechFolks.com
* {{IMDb title, 0402906, Czech Dream 2004 films 2000s Czech-language films Culture jamming Czech documentary films Documentary films about business Documentary films about consumerism Hoaxes in the Czech Republic Performance hoaxes 2004 documentary films 2004 hoaxes 2003 in the Czech Republic 2004 in the Czech Republic Advertising in the Czech Republic

Concept

Prizes

See also

References

External links