Accumulator 1

In 1994, Jan Svěrák presented two works to the public: the intimate, youthful road movie The Ride, with a screenplay he wrote with Martin Dostál, and the energetic fantasy comedy Accumulator 1, based on a script by Zdeněk Svěrák. The former won the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, while the latter became the most-watched film of the year and is perhaps the most peculiar entry in the family’s filmography. Olda Soukup (Petr Forman) suffers from a mysterious loss of energy. The doctors are helpless. Only the healer Fišárek (Zdeněk Svěrák) makes him realize that television is to blame—behind the small screens, a parallel life is being lived by our doppelgängers, who drain the vital energy from us, the viewers. Olda has no choice but to arm himself with the power of trees and unexpected love and set out to battle the tele-monster. “People don’t meet and talk to each other. They don’t live their own lives and just passively watch someone else live for them. I live in a housing estate and in the evenings I see hundreds of windows lit up by television screens. They all blink at the same time. It’s an amazing sight. A skeptic might consider it a perfect image of our civilization”, said Jan. Accumulator 1 combines the linguistic talent of the father with the visual imagination of the son. The special effects may seem dated today, but with time it is impossible not to appreciate the film’s grim prophecy.

Maciej Gil

Jan Svěrák (b. 1965) – Czech director, screenwriter, and producer. Son of actor and screenwriter Zdeněk (born 1936), and father of editor František (born 1991) and actor Ondřej (born 2001). A graduate of the documentary film department at FAMU in Prague. He won a Student Academy Award for Oil Gobblers (1988) and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Kolya (1996). He was also nominated for The Elementary School (1991) and received the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for The Ride (1994), along with numerous Czech Lions and other awards. His films The Elementary School, Kolya, Dark Blue World (2001), and Empties (2007) rank among the biggest successes at the Czech box office. He has also appeared in cameo roles in films by his colleague Filip Renč.

Zdeněk Svěrák (b. 1936) – Czech actor, screenwriter, playwright, and author of numerous collections of short stories for children and adults (also published in Poland), as well as hundreds of song lyrics. Father of director, screenwriter, and producer Jan (born 1965), and grandfather of editor František (born 1991) and actor Ondřej (born 2001). Trained as a teacher of Czech language and literature. The recipient of countless awards, he has co-created films that won an Academy Award and received two further nominations. In 1967, he co-founded the Jára Cimrman Theatre, for which he wrote all the plays and where he continues to perform to this day. As a screenwriter, he has collaborated with some of the most prominent Czech directors, including Oldřich Lipský, Jiří Menzel, Vít Olmer, Ladislav Smoljak, and, of course, his son Jan. As an actor, he has appeared in films by the aforementioned directors as well as those by Věra Chytilová and Dušan Klein.

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