Always Together

In this portrait of an unusual Czech family, nine children seem to be living in paradise. On sunlit meadows, they have a large playground with lots of swings, they climb high in trees and no matter how small they are, they hang around on the roof of the trailer that is part of their self-built home. Nonetheless, they have a father who is a disciplinarian and leads his family with a heavy hand. The mother is gentler, but she always sides with her husband. Although both parents are educated people, they willingly chose for a life outside mainstream society. Director Eva Tomanová looks at them critically, and it’s no coincidence that she opens with a scene in which the father goes to the welfare office with his children in tow. Is a man who consciously evades the system and denies his children schooling entitled to money from the state? Tomanová takes us gently along in the family’s ideal life, which she then sharply dissects. How good is it for the children to grow up like this, with a father who has proclaimed himself to be a “professional?”