On the Other Track

Marie Horníková aka Majka is a fifty-year old vendor of the Novy Prostor magazine (equivalent to Big Issue) at the main train station. A confident ballet dancer with a duck-like walk and coarse voice. Neither a homeless person, nor an alcoholic. She came up with the idea of starting a regular slot "interviews with celebrities" for the magazine which she sells. It turned out that celebrities cannot resist and they usually come to the interview and answer honest questions with pleasure and immediacy. The documentary does not try to examine the quality of Majka's life, it does not attempt to show her as a pauper who actually copes quite well (the usual feeling from socially engaged documentaries). The film consists of three interviews (with a singer, politician and a writer). Her energy and disarming simplicity cracks the walls of our pretences like nutshells. The context of celebrity interviews reveals the contrast of two worlds, with honesty, fun and immediacy as their meeting points.
FAMU, Department of Documentary Film (2nd year - portrait)