The Snowdrop Festival(Slavnosti sněženek)

This sly, bucolic comedy takes place in the Kersko forest, which, according to Menzel, is ‘inhabited exclusively by rustic eccentrics with an insatiable thirst for draft beer.’ Their nothing-much-to-do lives turn upon a wild boar hunt, which leads to arguments about how to divvy it up between the two rival groups of gamekeepers. Mixing sentimental lyricism and boisterous humour with Hrabal’s work, Menzel takes a comic panorama of human foibles and life’s absurdities – yet his picturesque lens never forgets a moment revelling in the natural beauty of his country.