The Jester and the Queen

Originally a theater play starring Bolek Polivka (Czech) and his wife Chantal Poullain-Polivkova (French), the movie is a satirical look at foreign occupation – a medieval Czech jester entertains a German king and his French wife, or a modern Czech villager helps a Bavarian hunter and his French wife find wild boar in Bohemia – the story switches back and forth between the two plots and time-periods. Listen as the jester corrects the queen’s Czech, proclaiming “Neumí Çe-e-e-sky”: she can’t speak Czech. Polívka uses traditional pantomime techniques as part of the jester’s repertoire.