Rose Tinted Dreams

Rose Tinted Dreams with English subtitles is a 1977 Czechoslovak film. Despite its whimsical poetic style, it was the first Central European feature film that put the Romani (Gypsy) community at the center stage in a realistic manner. It was also a singular artistic achievement in Slovak and Czechoslovak cinema during the intensely repressive period after the Soviet invasion of 1968 by Dušan Hanák, director of several acclaimed films who maintained the integrity of his vision and style throughout the vagaries of Central European filmmaking in the second half of the 20th century. In a broader sense, Rosy Dreams was prescient in Central European cinema because it dealt with a minority group whose plight, not discussed openly then, has since become one of the key issues in several Central European societies. The clash of the communities is depicted with the subtle tender attitude inherited from the Czechoslovak New Wave.

An amiable picture about entering adulthood, great dreams, and the first – forbidden – love of a white postman, Jakub, and a pretty Gypsy girl, Jolanka. This is a poetic story, a mosaic of the playful world springing from the wild imagination of the village postman and its clash with the pragmatic mundane reality that finally beats the rosy dreams of the young protagonists.