The Greedy Tiffany

Andy Fehu's low budget but effective comic horror parable about the dangers of greed and lust draws draws on the ancient myths of the sirens, but sets it firmly within the lower rungs of today's Czech society.

Pepa (Leoš Noha) isn't quite a vagrant - though most of his acquaintances are. He lives in a squalid and spartan apartment, used as a place to get drunk before passing out on an old mattress. He leaves mainly for thieving forays to country cottages, hawking his spoils to the local pawn shop before spending the proceeds on drink and returning to the mattress again.

During a botched robbery, he stumbles upon a camcorder in a field - and we already know what the footage is likely to show, as the film begins with the shooting of the tape it contains. We've seen the couple who shot the film stumbling on the money equivalent of the 'magic porridge pot' - a hole that seductively whispers: "Touch me" to those who pass it and which appears to hold an endless supply of coins. Pepa, is immediately determined to find the treasure for himself but quickly learns that something in the bottom of the hole is hungry for an extreme form of payment.

Fehu mines the situation for dark laughs, showing how the tape goes viral, resulting in hordes of 'dectectorists' roaming the landscape. Dig into the film a bit more, however, and there is a stinging assessment of a society where people are dispensable if there is money to be made and where everyone is preying on somebody else. There is also the deep irony that, although Pepa could quickly get rich, he shows no inclination to change his situation, seeing the influx as cash merely as a way of continuing to fund his existing lifestyle. Fehu, in a careful balancing of tone, ensures that his situation remains tragicomic to the last, rather than merely exploiting him for cheap laughs. More tragic still is his none-too-bright chum, who we will to stay pure of heart.

The Greedy Tiffany does take a while to get going and the simplicity of the story means that it is predictable, if enjoyably so, but the setting and its characters' amorality lift it a notch above many other low budget productions. It appears as though Fehu has used several non-actors in the supporting cast and their presence also adds an authenticity to Pepa's environment. Fehu does, ultimately, deliver some gore for genre fans but it's the horror of every day human nature that is the film's richest seam.