How Long Is “Music”?

A guy with a passion for jazz tries to find room for his musical dreams in this comedy set in Czechoslovakia in the early Seventies. Martin (Lubos Kostelny) has a dead-end job at a water treatment plant and a wife who is expecting a baby, Marfa (Tana Pauhofova). Martin's job doesn't bring in as much money as he needs, so for the moment he and Marfa are living with her folks (Marian Geisberg and Jana Olhova), who make no secret of the fact they don't like him. One of Martin's few joys in life is music; he's a serious jazz fan at a time with the Czech government barely acknowledges the existence of the music, and he plays his saxophone whenever and wherever he has the chance. For Martin, one of the few upsides to living with Marfa's family is the presence of her brother Zofre (Marek Geisberg), a slacker who also loves jazz and plays guitar. After jamming together, Martin and Zofre decide to form a combo with another local musician, Ivan (Jan Budar). Martin wants nothing more than to play music for a living, a goal that seems far out of reach, though it certainly impresses enough attractive women to compensate, and he falls into an affair with a sexy younger woman, Anca (Dorota Nvotova). Muzika (aka Music) was screened as an official selection at the 2008 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.