Rex-patriates (2004)

• 56%
• 2004
• Documentary
• Nancy Bishop
• James Babson
• Nancy Bishop
• Brian Caspe

In 1990, Alan Levy, Editor in Chief of the Prague Post, proclaimed that Prague was the "Left Bank of the 90s," -- the new European haven for American artists, (just as Paris had been the expatriate home of Hemingway, Stein and Miller in the 1920s.) Levy's herald rang out like a clarion call, summoning expatriate North Americans from Nova Scotia to the Golden Gate. Rex-Patriates is a satire that follows the lives of four expatriate Americans, a writer, an entrepreneur, a theater director and a physical artist, who venture to Prague after the fall of communism. Bedazzled by the city's beauty, cheap beer, and liberal lifestyle, they set out to forge an artistic renaissance. But was Prague really a breeding ground for artistic genius? By the mid-90s the expatriates' dreams are foiled and Prague becomes a dark cauldron of failure. The obvious solution would be to leave the city, but there is just one problem,the old crone. It is as Franz Kafka observed: "Prague doesn't let go. This old crone has claws. One has to yield or else.