Samotáři (Loners) is a 2000 Czech comedy film directed by David Ondříček. The film stars relatively unknown (at the time) actors such as Ivan Trojan, Jiří Macháček, Jitka Schneiderová and Saša Rašilov and is considered to be a Czech cult classic. The story revolves around seven young people from Prague whose empty and unfulfilling lives gradually intertwine as a result of a series of unforeseen events.
Synopsis
Petr (Saša Rašilov) works as a host on a popular radio station. He has just got separated from his girlfriend Hanka (Jitka Schneiderová) and uses his airtime to speak about his feelings after the breakup which angers his boss. Hanka, on the other hand, sees their breakup as an opportunity for a fresh start. One day, she 'accidentally' bumps into her ex-boyfriend Ondřej (Ivan Trojan), who learned about their breakup from the radio. Ondřej is a successful surgeon but also a psychopath who stalked her after the two had broken up a couple years ago. Ondřej explains that he is now a different person and has a family but also tries to persuade Hanka to return to him. Hanka refuses and warns him to stay away from her. She asks her friend Jakub (Jiří Macháček) to help her move things from Petr's flat to her parents' house. Jakub is a heavy marijuana user with serious problems with memory. While driving through the city, the two see a crashed car and transport its unconscious driver to a hospital. The surgeon who operates the patient is Ondřej who learns that one of the people who brought the injured driver was Hanka. He sees it as a sign that they should be together and immediately resumes stalking her. Meanwhile, Ondřej's wife Lenka (Dana Sedláková) together with her colleague Robert (Mikuláš Křen) bring Japanese customers of their travel agency to show them how Czech families normally live. For this purpose, they pick Hanka's family. Lenka wants to have an ideal poster family herself. Robert records the families on a camera but in his spare time, he also records other people in difficult situations for his own entertainment. One of the people he records is his terminally ill mother who gives him life lectures every time he visits her in the hospital. Robert meets Vesna (Labina Mitevska), Macedonian bartender who arrived in the Czech Republic to find her father. The two start dating and he even introduces her to his mother.