KOSMO

The satirical comedy, consisting of five episodes, describes a made-up Czech flight to the Moon with a ruthless hyperbole. The story begins when it shows that this long abandoned project, with funds siphoned off to someone’s pockets, is facing the threat of an immense penalty by the EU. To avoid it, the project must be successfully finished whatever it takes, all the way to the moment of triumph, when the nation stares in awe at the landing of our “golden boys” in the final destination.

The story is narrated in two lines. The protagonists of the first one are four incompetent astronauts who are preparing for the flight in a dilapidated space training centre of the milked cosmic programme, and then embark on their space odyssey in an absurd spaceship together with an alive hen whose participation was conditioned by the flight sponsor, a Czech poultry magnate. The second line features the minister of education and his secretary who are securing the flight from the bottom and provide it with political support while fulfilling the strict terms and conditions of the sponsor agreement.

Genre-wise, Kosmo resembles classical Czech crazy comedies, but with dark evocation of social criticism – a little bit of Green Raoul, a little bit of Red Dwarf, a little bit of Yes Minister, and 100% Czech Republic in 2016. “Tomáš Baldýnský was one of the creators of the series Comeback which showed – if not to the whole world, at least to the nation – that the Czechs are also capable of making a sitcom. Thus Kosmo is the answer to those who think that the Czech Television is afraid of making a political satire,” says the head of the project Kosmo, Jan Maxa.