Ondřej Süss

A father and son have nothing in common except a first name, Richard, and an apartment on a housing estate. The burly, good-natured, 30-something factory worker listens to heavy metal and occasionally lets his girlfriend into his life. The frail, retired teacher, who raised the boy after his mother’s departure, is the embodiment of care and understanding. However, their tranquil, shared reality, which embraces both the hardcore band Našrot and Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers,” is disrupted by the sudden death of the mother. Young Richard sets out on a peculiar initiation journey with bizarre encounters and moments of unexpected enlightenment.

Annička Jesenská inherits her late uncle’s dental practice in the Austro-Hungarian border town of Medov, only to find locals loyal to a rival dentist allied with the schoolteacher and a sugar-candy magnate. Determined to help children, she discovers an exotic Peruvian herb that makes treatments painless and, with the support of local kids, challenges the entrenched interests to improve oral health in the community.