| Cosy Dens | |
| Director: | Jan Hřebejk |
| Producer: |
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| Starring: | |
| Music: |
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| Cinematography: | Jan Malíř |
| Editing: | Vladimír Barák |
| Distributor: | Česká televize |
| Runtime: | 115 minutes |
| Country: | Czechia |
| Language: | Czech |
| Budget: | 20,000,000 Kč |
| Gross: | 80,000,000 Kč[1] |
Cosy Dens (Pelíšky) is a 1999 Czech film directed by Jan Hřebejk. It is loosely based on the novel Hovno Hoří (Czech: "shit on fire") by Petr Šabach. It was voted the best Czech film by Reflex magazine in 2011.
Cosy Dens is a bittersweet coming-of-age story set in the months from Christmas 1967 up to the 1968 Prague Spring. Teenager Michal Šebek has a crush on his upstairs neighbour, Jindřiška Krausová. Michal's family is led by a stubborn army officer who is a firm supporter of the Communist system and who believes that Communist technology will eventually triumph over "Western imperialist capitalism', while Jindřiška's father is an ardent foe of the Communists and a war hero, who has been imprisoned several times because of his outspoken opposition to the regime. He believes that "the Bolsheviks have a year left at most, maybe two". In contrast, the younger generation could not care less for politics. Instead, Michal sports a Beatles-style mop-top, while Elien, whose parents live in the United States, runs a local film group specialising in Hollywood and pre-war French films. Jindřiška eventually becomes Elien's girlfriend. After a wedding that unites the families, the film ends with the news of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops.
The Czech title is a plural and diminutive of the word "pelech", literally meaning animal den or burrow. It is used figuratively for a cosy place to sleep.[2]
The soundtrack to Cosy Dens was released in April 1999 and contains snippets of dialogue in addition to songs.[3]