Jako nikdy

Czechoslovakia's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1990

This title is record of authentic theatre play. The subject is composition of series of real secret records of phone calls between soccer bosses in Czech soccer underground brought to investigation in 2004. The most absurd parts used Petr Ctvrtnicek to compose this performance given in form of text recitation as it were the phone calls while the actors are sitting in chairs in front of audience having the screenplay by hand.

The Horváth family is a Romani family with seven children, and the story begins with the tragic death of the father. His wife, Vera, is suddenly in a fight with the authorities, determined to keep her large family together at all costs, but she is hopelessly ill-prepared for the task. They are evicted from their home and her case-Vera versus the city-finds its way to a young, ambitious lawyer. She doesn't know the world of the Romani, nor is she particularly interested in it. Initially she takes the case as a springboard for her career. Despite her prejudices, incomprehension and sometimes Vera herself, she doesn't abandon the case. Luckily she is not the only one who sides with the family. There is a social worker whose attempts to help the Horváths are also motivated by his entirely private interest in the attractive lawyer.