Walking Too Fast

Plot

The story revolves around Antonín Rusnák who is an StB agent. He feels rage towards the world. He feels sick and bored from his family and work. His psychological issues cause him breathing problems and his doctor advises him to breathe into a bag if he gets a fit.

Antonín and his partner Martin surveil Tomáš and Pavel. They are both dissidents but Pavel is also collaborating with Antonín and Martin. Antonín finds out that Tomáš, who is married, has a lover, Klára. Antonín becomes interested in her. He secretly follows her and uses his authority to protect her. He beats up a guy who bothers her or prevents her boss from firing her because of her links to the dissidents. He also pushes Tomáš to leave the country to get rid of him. He beats him up during interrogations and reveals his affair to his family and Tomáš finally decides to leave Czechoslovakia.

Antonín forces Pavel to arrange a meeting with Klára in exchange for seeing his file. Pavel then meets Antonín’s partner Martin in order to reveal the agreement he made with Antonín. Martin states that Antonín is done at StB but doesn’t know that Antonín is aware of their meeting and lures Martin to the woods where he attacks him and threatens him with a gun. Martin begs him for his life and Antonín handcuffs him to a tree.

Martin and Klára meet in Pavel’s apartment. The meeting doesn’t end well and Antonín gets a fit so he breathes into the bag which makes Klára realize that Antonín is the agent who terrorized Tomáš. He tells her that he followed her and she admits that she felt as if somebody was watching her for a long time. Antonín reveals his name and she says that he has to stop watching her.

Klára leaves the apartment but writes a message for Pavel on the Wall - "Svině" (Swine). Klára goes Home and meets the ambulance that takes her pregnant Friend Darina to the Hospital. She gets on the ambulance but looks around if anybody watches her. The film ends with Antonín waking up at the lakeside. The audience can now hear his thoughts as he enters the lake and goes deeper and deeper. He thinks about who he was and hopes that Klára will remember his name. In the end he states "It is beautiful here" as he kills himself.

Cast

Awards

The film gained 13 nominations for Czech Lion. It received 5 of them - Best film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Actor in Leading Role. Film also received The Film Critics' Award.

Walking Too Fast also succeeded at Czech Film Critics' Awards. The film was awarded in 5 categories - Best film, Best director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor in Leading Role and RWE award.

Reception

The film has won universal acclaim from critics in the Czech Republic. Out of all Czech films Walking too fast is number one on Czech movie aggregator Kinobox.cz where it holds 87% from critics. František Fuka considers it to be the best Czech film in a few last years if not the best since the Velvet revolution. The film currently holds 74% on Czech-Slovak Film Database.

Reviews

International festivals

Film was shown at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, East European Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.