Sun, Hay and Strawberries

Well, it was shot by Troška, and that's just how it looks. In terms of craft, it's the hardest caliber ride, the screenplay is full of terribly malignant jokes and attempts to be as crazy as possible - some "cultural inserts" (such as the one with the moon and Aria from Rusalka) typically bear Troška’s handiwork, from which a judicious viewer feels sick. On the other hand, Troška managed to perfectly find the atmosphere of a classic Czech village in the midst of an idiotic rampage, and in some places the film is surprisingly faithful and poetic (perhaps inadvertently). Undoubtedly, this is due to excellent performances by the actors and non-actors (mainly Růžičková makes her Škopková great) and also some of the humorous situations. Not knowing what would come out of this filmmaking branch in the future, perhaps I would have given a star more. Unfortunately, we all know how that turned out... (04/01/2004)

In the 80s, it was a sort of cult film, and I heard many viewers who considered this Troška comedy to be the ideal form of film entertainment. In the context of his work in the 90s, his first village comedy could be considered decent, because later he pushed the boundaries of bad taste much more relentlessly, but in reality, this homage to awkwardness and boorishness is fully contained in the film. Unfortunately, I was unlucky enough to be on a bus trip and unintentionally watched the entire series of these films series on video, which couldn't be avoided, and it was a journey through hell for me - so the director can't expect any forgiveness from me. Overall impression: 25%. (09/22/2010)

Think what you want about Troška, but with this folk tale he simply hit the bull's-eye. The whole thing looks like a continuous improvisation, with some attempt to convey a barebones plot, but maybe that's why it’s so easy to watch, and maybe that's why it became so popular. It is undoubtedly a faithful reflection of the Czech village nature, where you are never far from a slap, where you go to bed with a bottle and where corpulent peasant women with knotted eyebrows rule the dances. As a summer diversion, inoffensive and basically unique – no one else in the world has made this and no one else will. (08/14/2018)

No matter what you think about the series of films "Slunce, seno,..." one thing cannot be taken away from them. They are funny. Zdeněk Troška managed to capture the Czech nature, human relationships, and our stupidity in such a way that we simply have nothing else to do but laugh at it. Of course, we are not all like that, of course, we all think that this is only about some people who may or may not have existed, but try to think about it and maybe you will realize that this is really about all of us. False assumptions that a titled person is better than a person without a title at any cost. Family stereotypes that never change. Life in disguise and a desire to please everyone around us at any cost, because what if they talk about us behind our backs! It's all just an illusion that we create around ourselves. That this film is not really that deep? Oh come on, you know that it is. We laugh at ourselves because we simply have nothing else to do. We can tell ourselves that we are completely different, that it has been thirty years since we behaved like this, but it hasn't changed that much. Just look around you. People still try to live in a way that others think everything is fine, that they are doing well, even though they can't really afford what they spend on, even though it's not really such an idyll at home. We still live in stereotypes that cannot fulfill us with happiness. Why do we live them? Because it's easier, because it's the certainty we have. I love this movie and I'm not ashamed of the people in it. I would have to be ashamed of all of us then. Aren't we envious? Don't we want to show off with something that is not ours, or something we can't do anyway? Don't we think the worst of everyone? Don't we badmouth behind their backs? I don't know, but I still see people among us who are like that. Maybe I am too, maybe not. Let others judge, but we can still say that we can make fun of ourselves. Sometimes I feel like this is really the last thing that keeps us going. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/12/motocyklove-deniky-proposition-v-zajeti.html (03/02/2013)