Czech Film Center

Synopsis

Tuner is a story from contemporary Prague into which the past unrelentingly forces its way; it is impossible to escape, lose or dismiss it. At least the majority of the characters can’t do it. Each of their lives has developed to a certain point more or less independently of the rest. Still, at the end of the story they find themselves caught in the same flow, fitting together like the pieces of a cruel jigsaw puzzle. Ivan Kos, the owner of a renowned restaurant in Montreal, Canada, returns to Prague after a forty-year absence. He rents the apartment he had spent his childhood in with his mother, a pianist, before they emigrated in the 1960’s. Working from old photos and sketchy memories, he gradually redecorates the apartment so it resembles his childhood home, which is supposed to be a surprise for his mother Zora, who is set to arrive in Prague to celebrate her eightieth birthday. Hand in hand with the redecorating of the apartment, the story of Zora’s friends unfolds – Ludvík Vajner, a tuner, and his old friend František Masák, whose name appeared on a list of secret police collaborators “when the times finally changed, when we finally got that wonderful relief.” For František and his family, this mark of Cain is all the more painful because of Ludvík’s conviction that it was František who informed against him as he was making plans to emigrate in the 1950’s – of all of his friends, only his name appeared on the list. Only when František is on his deathbed does Ludvík oblige František’s wife and request his file, from which he learns that František had indeed turned him in.