Panelstory or Birth of a Community

A vast, unfinished housing estate on the outskirts of Prague becomes the setting for Věra Chytilová’s anarchic social satire.

Over a single day, a tragicomic gallery of residents attempt to go about their lives amid mud, rubble and malfunctioning buildings. Shot with restless energy after Chytilová’s years of blacklisting, this funny, dystopian and startlingly modern film exposes the absurdities of urban planning and human behaviour.

"A frantic mosaic of life during the establishment of a housing estate." — Cerise Howard, Senses of Cinema