Housing Benefit

Directed by Lukáš Valíšek

With Anežka Rusevová, Filip Týc, Štěpán Coufal, Štěpánka Pencová and Tomáš Karab

This stylised short film follows the unexpected intertwining of the fates of a young man, who applies for housing benefit during the day, and the clerk who processes his application. When they meet by chance in a bar that evening and events take an unexpected turn, they both end up in his flat. During their late-night conversation, the clerk reveals the absurdity of her daily work at the office – a world full of nonsensical rules, powerlessness and alienation, which is disturbingly reminiscent of a Kafkaesque labyrinth. This intimate drama, laced with black humour, shows that the victims of bureaucracy are not only its clients, but also those who carry it out.