Zacatek Sveta

'Beginning of the World' is a new Czech film set in one of South Bohemia's loveliest towns, Telc. Until now known mostly for its exemplary Renaissance town square, this hamlet near the Austrian border proves to have a secret undercurrent - one that director Pavel Melounek keenly captures. His principal characters, played by the relatively unknown Dan Svatek and Vladimir Drha, embark on three stories that all culminate on New Year's Day 2000. These tales of frustration, irony and the struggle for meaning tellingly reveal a side of Czech small-town life at the end of the 20th-century. With English subtitles at selected cinemas.