Czech Film Center

Synopsis

 Eighty Letters is autobiographically based. The source of the film are the memories of the director and the surviving correspondence between his parents. The story takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1987, after the father has defected to England and the mother and her son are trying to leave the country to reunite with him. Husband, wife, child – even at a distance they are still together, but the forced break-up of any family is an abnormal situation.

The film is told through the eyes of the fourteen-year-old boy, his rankled look without the veneer of experience or initiation, in just one day, as his mother is going about a ramped up daily routine, mapping out every step hour by hour. He catches up with her in the midst of it but she must act alone in order to make their reunion a reality.