A screening of the award-winning poetic documentary by Slovak director Miro Remo, inspired by Aleš Palán and Jan Šibík’s book of the same name about Šumava hermits, sibling bonds, and the price of freedom. The film won the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
TICKETSBetter Go Mad in the Wild / dir. Miro Remo / 2025 / documentary / Czechia, Slovakia / Czech with English subtitles / 84 min.
Director: Miro Remo Featuring: František Klišík, Ondřej Klišík, Jiří Lábus as narrator
Set against the Šumava landscape and the changing seasons, the documentary follows twins František and Ondřej Klišík, who live in isolation far from civilization and social expectations. Their days revolve around animals, work on the homestead, and an intense shared life, yet it gradually becomes clear that each brother sees the world differently.
Out of the tension between the desire for freedom and the need for stability emerges a fragile, at times magical story about sibling bonds, solitude, and the search for identity. The brothers’ long-standing symbiosis begins to reach its limits: Franta increasingly retreats into a world of fantasy, dreams of flying, and longs to break beyond the closed space of his life, while Ondra finds certainty in routine and familiar order.
Miro Remo does not create a traditional observational documentary. Through visually playful stylization, a subjective point of view, and the poetics of everyday life, he explores the border between reality and imagination. Better Go Mad in the Wild is therefore not only a portrait of two extraordinary men, but also a reflection on freedom, closeness, and whether it is possible to escape the world without escaping ourselves.
The event is organized by the Czech Center New York with support from Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.
