Czech Film Center

Synopsis

Novel for Men is a tragicomical story of three siblings whose lives changed dramatically after losing their parents during the Communist regime. The oldest, Cyril, grew up to be a corrupt judge who lives for luxury and takes whatever he wants without remorse. His younger sister, the idealistic Aneta, is an investigative journalist writing about political scandals. Thanks to her work, for which she sacrifices everything, her personal life falls apart. The middle sibling, Bruno, has held on to a childish view of the world as he has avoided real life. Each one is totally different, yet they all try to stick together.

That is, until they learn that Bruno is terminally ill and has very little time left. Cyril decides to redeem himself by organizing a week-long luxury trip to the High Tatras. As a gift to Bruno, he also brings along a young stripper named Tali.

During the trip we see the siblings fail to communicate with one another, and latent desires and conflicts spring up. Tali turns out to be a nice person who tries to heal the siblings. She spends the night with Bruno, boosts Aneta’s self-confidence and shows Cyril his true face. But when her jealous lover heads to the mountains after her, he takes a radical approach to resolving the situation. Each of the siblings arrives at a fundamental understanding and reconciles with their own imperfect lives. Bruno dies, Aneta finally finds a boyfriend that she can respect, and pregnant Tali remains to Cyril like a hope for the future. There is a question of whether Cyril will seize it...