Synopsis
It is 2014, and Sir “P”, a 90-year-old talking grey parrot that once belonged to Edouard Daladier, finds himself in Prague at the invitation of the director of the French Cultural Institute as a living relic of the time of the Munich Agreement.
The Czech side organises a rather absurd press conference at which the “gentleman” does indeed repeat certain key sentences and statements ascribed to his erstwhile owner.
Under dramatic circumstances the parrot is kidnapped by a Czech journalist (Pavel), and its controversial quotations of Edouard Daladier cause something of an accidental political scandal. Against the background of these events we follow Pavel’s struggle to deal with a mid-life crisis, his leaving his job and his wife, and his bonding with the feathered media star.
But that’s just half the story!
In the second part, conceived as a "BEHIND THE SCENES" film, we see that it was all a difficult Czech – French co-production project that kept running up against problems right from the get-go.
The French lead role, Gerard Lanvin, who plays the director of the French Institute in Prague, arrives at the set more or less by accident, the director insists that the parrot really speak, and the main Czech actor, Martin Myšička in the role of Pavel the reporter, suffers a major allergic reaction to feathers on the first day of shooting.
The difficulties progress, the shooting plan and the budget fall apart.
Martin undergoes a series of séances involving holotropic breathing. In them he “breathes his way in” to an authentic re-living of the events of Munich, for a moment becoming a participant to the proceedings. He understands that the truth was apparently altogether different than the official Czech history books claim.
And while he is trying to relate his experience to his colleagues, the French withdraw from the production.
The paradox is that the French never actually had any intention of being involved in the film. It was all a bit of bluffing on the part of the Czech producer.
And thus history repeats itself, this time on the “reduced scale” of a failed co-production film. Once again, the Czechs feel betrayed, and once again everything is a little different – but this time the viewer is a witness to it. The death of Gerard Lanvin is the last nail in the coffin of an ambitious film project that was dead on conception. And so there is nothing left to do but go to the editing room, and breathe new meaning into the film’s unfinished body…