Lost in Munich starts odd – a French parrot offends Czechs on the anniversary of the historical 1938 Munich agreement by repeating the insults of the French PM Edouard Daladier – and only gets odder.

What begins as a broad, family-friendly comedy becomes far more clever and insightful when it suddenly turns into a mockumentary halfway through. The insights into the filmmaking process are hilarious, but remain secondary to the absurdism on show as the shoot faces disaster.

Zelenka’s script is fantastic, providing big, consistent laughs whilst juggling a complex plot and even successfully critiquing Czech military history.

You may not expect much from the bizarre premise, but this is accomplished and hilarious filmmaking. The best absurdist farce about a talking parrot and Czech history you’ll ever see.

RATING: 4/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Martin Myšička, Marek Taclík, Marcial Di Fonzo Bo

DIRECTOR: Petr Zelenka

WRITER: Petr Zelenka

SYNOPSIS: Sir ‘P’ a 90 year old grey parrot, formerly living with Edouard Daladier, the French prime minister responsible for signing the Munich Treaty, comes to Prague to give his “account” of past events. But can he do it, being just a bird? In a series of weird events the parrot is kidnapped by a Czech journalist undergoing a midlife crisis. But that’s only half the story…