30 Cases of Major Zeman

30 Cases of Major Zeman (1974) Boo!

Czech audiences love their informants. Those cheerful informants that come from the people, with a kind face and the proper attitude and explanation of all the major historical events in the difficult times of 1948. Czech audiences cannot live without their informants. Because the world of informants is one big fairy tale – there is clear good and there is clear evil. Evil are all those who are not informants of the people. Repulsive intellectuals. True peasants. Rich peasants. Artists. Then there are even less perfect individuals, not evil per se, but simply not from the Public Security. Together, they form a world ruled by our informants from the people. Jiří Sequens filmed the embodied normalization, both in terms of shape and content. Beneath the thin crust of would-be detective stories (are they detective stories at all, dear experts?) lies well-formulated propaganda, served with boorish charm and uncommon pander. Was it good in terms of craft? Don't let anyone laugh at you. Terrible! Sparse! Artificial! Perhaps the musical accompaniment is worth giving credit to... However, Czech audiences love their informants and do not care that Thirty Cases of Major Zeman is first-class propaganda shit, and when we take a closer look at it, the film seems to have a perverse systematic tendency to overturn reality. Enjoy yourselves, fans of comrade Major Zeman of the people… Did you actually notice what the famous Well is all about? Murder? But! Try again... How about the wrong attitude of a part of the socialist nation in regards to 1968? It's burning!!!!! (07/07/2004)