Martin Sulik sifts through the mordant and voluminous diaries of journalist/filmmaker Pavel Juracek to create this impressionistic 2003 portrait of an artist continually on the verge of cracking up. Reports of pressure from state apparatchiks are sandwiched between deadpan observations like “They finally picked a Miss Czechoslovakia” and “It says on the bathroom wall that Veronika’s got a lover” (a humiliating reference to his promiscuous wife). Intense highs of feverish creativity play out against a dark social backdrop as the Prague Spring of 1968 is crushed by Soviet tanks, and footage of Henry Fonda and Claudia Cardinale being worshipped at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival contrasts absurdly with harrowing accounts of political censorship. Especially piquant is the casting of Marek Juracek to reenact scenes from his father’s remarkable but sadly truncated life. In Czech with subtitles. 58 min.