Garden Store: The Deserter

The film trilogy Garden Store consists of three standalone films set against the backdrop of the most dramatic periods of the twentieth century, taking place before the beloved film Cosy Dens (1999). It tells the stories of three families: the family of an air force radio operator, the family of the owner of a hairdressing salon, and the family of the owner of a nursery. It spans 20 years in the lives of characters who were forced to live the best years of their lives in these turbulent times. The second chapter of the Garden Store family chronicle is set against the backdrop of the momentous events of 1947 to 1953. The central character is Otto Bock (Jiří Macháček), the owner of the elegant Valentino hairdressing salon in the heart of Prague, and his family, whom he employs there. The salon is the purpose and fulfillment of his life. After all the hardships of the war, he returns as a respected proprietor alongside his wife Ela (Gabriela Míčová) and her sisters Bedřiška (Klára Melíšková) and Vilma (Aňa Geislerová). The sisters survived the war and the German occupation together, caring for the young children of their husbands, who had been arrested for anti-Nazi resistance. Now they are all working with tremendous effort to realize their dream, but a turning point arrives with the communist coup of February 1948. Otto's company is nationalized, and for the second time in his life his world falls apart. This time, however, the consequences of the upheaval are fatal for him and his family.