Panelstory, or How a Housing Development Is Born

Director: Věra Chytilová

1979 / 100min / 4K DCP

In a sprawling, labyrinthine prefab housing development in Prague, already occupied but very far from being completed, exasperated tenants struggle with the malfunctioning fixtures inside while outside, they negotiate vast plains of excavated earth that turn to muck and mire with the rain. Depicting one day in the life of this disorderly community, a day rife with aggravations and jerry-rigged solutions, Chytilová’s stinging satire of utopian social engineering and the drab reality that follows its faulty execution drew the ire of Czechoslovak authorities, who held it back from exhibition until 1981. Panelstory remains today a too-little-seen highlight of a brilliant, unruly, and obstinate career.

Distributor: Janus Films

Introduction by Masha Shpolberg, Assistant Professor of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College, Contributor to a forthcoming JCMS edited volume on Daisies on Saturday, December 12th

Part of Věra Chytilová x 4