Black Peter

Awarded at the Locarno Festival, Black Peter is a mordant tragicomedy about the disorientation of adolescence and the hypocrisy of the adult world. Peter, a 16-year-old, gets his first job at a small supermarket, where he is tasked with watching for possible theft—a duty that exposes, with irony and discomfort, the absurdity of social rules and generational conflict. Considered a landmark precursor of the Czech New Wave, the film combines sharp humour, social observation and subtle naturalism to portray the transition into adulthood.