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Cesky Sen - The Czech Dream (12A)
- Consumer Advice: Contains infrequent strong language
- Run time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Language: Czech
- Genre: Documentary
- Release date: 24th June 2005
- Starring: Residents Of The Czech Republic
- Directed by: Vit Klusak, Filip Remunda
- Official Website: www.czech-tv.cz/specialy/ceskysen/en
- Distributor: Soda Pictures
Plot Synopsis
CZECH DREAM documents the largest consumer hoax the Czech Republic has ever seen. Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak, two of Eastern Europe‘s most promising young documentary filmmakers, set out to explore the psychological and manipulative powers of consumerism by creating an ad campaign for something that didn’t exist.
CZECH DREAM – the Hypermarket for a better life!
The campaign (designed by a renowned advertising agency) involved television and radio spots, 400 illuminated billboards, 200,000 flyers promoting CZECH DREAM brand products, an advertising song, a website, and advertisements in newspapers and magazines.
For two weeks, the streets of Prague were saturated with advertising for the fake hypermarket. The ads proclaimed: Don’t Go, Don’t Rush, Don’t Spend drawing over 4,000 people to turn up on the ‘opening day‘. On the 31 May 2003, they arrived at a green field where, instead of a hypermarket, they found just the dream hypermarket’s façade (10m high and 100m wide).
CZECH DREAM is a funny and provocative look at the effects of rampant consumerism on a post-communist society. CZECH DREAM has also caused some controversy, provoking extreme reactions in the Czech people and media and even being discussed in Czech Parliament.
With the recent entry of the Czech Republic and other Eastern European countries to the EU, and, with people’s changing attitudes to consumerism and globalisation, it is equally relevant to capitalist societies all over the world.