It seems likely that Czech surrealist genius Jan Svankmajer has been sampling bootleg Cronenberg tapes, since this latest masterpiece makes a strange companion piece to Crash, while drawing on the images of Videodrome. A wordless charade, it follows a group of lonely Prague denizens as they labour through the week on projects that set up their Sundays: one man makes a cockerel mask from porn magazines and wings from umbrellas; a postwoman fills her head with bread; a policeman creates fetish surfaces from household objects; a newsreader buys fresh carp; and a newsagent builds an interactive tactile device that connects with his TV.
Svankmajer follows the process of these projects with Blue Peter-like detail, only gradually letting the specific function of the erotic machines become apparent. For an hour, this appears to be the director's first all live-action feature, but when Sunday comes and these solitary strangers cut loose, so does Svankmajer's provocative technique, as a couple abuse life-size dolls in each other's images.