Knoflíkáři captured the "restlessness" of the post-communist Czech Republic, where the old rules were gone and the new ones hadn't quite settled. It’s often compared to the work of (specifically Night on Earth ) or the absurdist surrealism of Luis Buñuel .
A man dealing with infidelity and the literal loss of buttons in his cab.
It won four Czech Lions (including Best Film, Director, and Screenplay) and the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. It’s a film that asks big questions—about responsibility, forgiveness, and the "moral fall-out" of history—all while showing you things you’ve never seen on screen before. Knoflíkáři (1997) - Filmový přehled Knoflikari(1997)
While the chapters seem independent at first, they are tightly linked by shared motifs and "cause and effect":
Couples struggling to find genuine love in a society where "everything is in motion" and everyone is essentially alone. Why It Still Matters It won four Czech Lions (including Best Film,
A man whose only pride is his ability to spit perfectly onto passing steam locomotives.
The title comes from one of the film’s most infamous "deviations": a group of men (called "Tverps") who use dentures held between their thighs to "bite" buttons off furniture—sofas, taxi seats, you name it. It’s a literal manifestation of Zelenka’s theme: minor, personal perversions that people use to cope with a world that feels increasingly fragmented and chaotic. Why It Still Matters A man whose only
If you haven’t yet experienced the surreal, dark brilliance of Petr Zelenka’s Knoflíkáři (translated as Buttoners ), you’re missing one of the most original pieces of Czech cinema to emerge from the 1990s. Forget standard linear plots; this film is a kaleidoscope of six interconnected stories that weave together social satire, historical speculation, and some truly bizarre human perversions.