Traps [Rooftop Moviehouse]

Traps / dir. Věra Chytilová / 1998 / dark comedy, satire / Czechia / Czech with English subtitles / 124 minutes

A vet, a politician, and a businessman walk into a forest... different people emerge. Věra Chytilová’s Traps is a razor-sharp feminist satire about power, gender, and revenge, set in post-communist Czechia’s bloodthirsty capitalism.

Corrupt MP Dohnal (Miroslav Donutil), aided by his former classmate, architect Petr (Tomáš Hanák), brutally rapes young veterinarian Lenka (Zuzana Stivínová) in the woods. But Lenka turns the tables—using her professional skills, she sedates both men and surgically castrates them. From there, all three spiral into an escalating vortex of conflict. Dohnal scrambles to keep the scandal under wraps, Petr struggles to shake off the women who relentlessly pursue him, and Lenka is crushed by guilt before her boyfriend, environmental activist Michal (Luboš Svoboda)—who ultimately betrays her through an affair with her best friend Anna (Eva Holubová) and attempts to exploit Lenka’s trauma to blackmail Dohnal for an environmental cause.

In this film, Věra Chytilová sharpens her blade of dark humor and pierces superficial society with surgical precision—relentless, unforgiving. With her trademark blend of grotesque surrealism and moral urgency, Chytilová mercilessly exposes the hypocrisy of the post-communist elite and the systems that shield them. What starts as a bitterly ironic game quickly morphs into a harrowing exploration of manipulation, toxic masculinity, and the arrogance of power.

A brilliantly sharp, daring, and uncompromising film from one of the most iconic figures of the Czech New Wave. Instead of catharsis, expect trap after trap—and a laughter that stings.

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