Josephine

Grlic's latest feature, Josephine follows the misadventures of a hapless young man from rural Bohemia who, in 1991, is finally free to cross newly open borders.

Jan, a cheese-maker from a small village in Bohemia, is on a mission. Now able to procure a passport, he's free to fulfill his father's dream: to find a black woman resembling legendary diva Josephine Baker and spend a night with her.

After fulfilling that dream in "Hollywood," a brothel in Hamburg, Jan is trapped by an American pimp who confiscates his cherished passport until he repays his "debts." Jan is trapped, but his confinement allows for a friendship with an East German dancer and former zoologist (Maria Schrader) to turn into a uniquely post-Cold War love story. (97 mins.)