Stoned To Death / Czech Republic / 2025 / CS
On a cold day in late February a group of six men marches through a long village in eastern parts of Czech Republic. Village is covered in the early afternoon shadow of nearby piedmonts. Late winter still bites. All men in the group are dressed in colorful slavic costumes, some of them are masked and look scary, weird or absurd at least. Village citizens greet them along the way, offering locally distilled schnapps, small breads and pickles. Older lady hands them freshly smoked pork sausages from a pig slaughter that took place in her yard last week. Those sausages will become handy later. Once the men reach the local pub, festivity will break through and villagers will unite in tireless mass dance, long grub and in an effort to drown the long winter with pints and pints of beer named after the guardian of local mountains. But for now they must march on and play music. One man beats the drum in tribal rhythm, another blows atonal tones on his whistle, third one plays his old detuned violin for what it's worth. In the forefront of the group is the strongest man of them all and he has an old bear on the leash. The bear is a stinky old creature, his hair is messy, intertwined with dirt and hay or whatever has stuck to it whenever he decided to lay down somewhere. His teeths is not sharp anymore, some are missing, one eye closed with dark goo in the corner of the eye. The bear is hard to handle. The man who has him on leash has four cards stuck under his belt and they are all aces. It’s an old trick to keep the bear in line. For now the bear obeys. He will march with the men. He’s pretty deaf and the music does not bother him. Causing a ruckus or disobedience is tyresome. He will just march on. He knows there will be pork meat and livers waiting for him at the pub.