The Triumph of Solitude and Madness: Why the Documentary “Better Go Mad in the Wild” Rightfully Dominated the Czech Lion Awards
When director Miro Remo and his team stepped up to collect the award for Best Documentary Film at the 33rd Czech Lion Awards (along with prizes for Best Cinematography and Editing), it came as no surprise to anyone familiar with the domestic film scene. After winning the Crystal Globe at last year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, it was a natural culmination of the journey of this mesmerizing film.
The documentary Better Go Mad in the Wild didn’t win just because of the chilling tragic undertone that runs through the film. It won because it is a confident, masterfully crafted, and emotionally devastating work that pushes the boundaries of the genre.
And we are glad that this documentary defeated The Great Patriotic Trip, which is more of a moralistic kitsch suited to provoking outrage at certain fellow citizens than an artistic documentary offering anything beyond clinging to stereotypes. It’s something like watching Wife Swap for “better” people.
Here are the likely reasons why the winning documentary resonated so strongly with both academics and the professional public:
Deconstruction of a literary myth
The book by Aleš Palán from 2018 was a phenomenon that portrayed the Šumava hermits through a more spiritual and poetic lens. But Miro Remo’s film language is different—it is raw, seeks conflict, and goes straight to the core. The director did not settle for a romanticized vision of modern-day hermits. He focused exclusively on the twin brothers František and Ondřej Klišík and showed solitude not merely as a free choice, but as an immense burden. In his documentary, Remo lays bare the “flickers of madness,” the relentlessness of alcohol, and the cabin fever of two people who share absolutely everything, yet are fundamentally different inside.
A visual poem without compromise
The Czech Lion award for Best Cinematography (Dušan Husár and Miro Remo) is key. Most domestic documentaries suffer from a television-style aesthetic of “talking heads.” Better Go Mad in the Wild, by contrast, is a pure cinema film. The camera captures the magical, almost mythical world of the Šumava wilderness as well as the harsh routine of the two brothers with remarkable imagination. The play with light, the details of faces marked by time and isolation, and even the incorporation of Smetana’s Vltava—all of this creates a visually mesmerizing experience that lingers long after the final credits.
Editing dynamics of two opposites
The third Czech Lion, for Best Editing (Máté Csuport and Šimon Hájek), was equally well deserved. The documentary stands and falls on the contrast between the identical twin brothers. František is an extrovert, a dreamer who longs to escape, to fly, and to break free from confining walls. Ondřej, on the other hand, is a pragmatist rooted in reality. The editors managed to build a compelling drama from nearly six years of filming and hundreds of hours of footage. The film’s rhythm perfectly mirrors the tension between brotherly love and the frustration of “carrying your own face across the entire world.”
A chilling overlap with real life
The film cannot be evaluated without the context of death. Tragedy accompanied the production from the very beginning (with the deaths of other planned protagonists), but the cruelest climax came shortly after the premiere. František Klišík drowned just one day after the film won the main prize in Karlovy Vary. This event retroactively gives the documentary an incredibly fatal and painful dimension. The film thus became not only a probe into life on the margins of society, but also a final, unintended epitaph for one untamed dreamer.
Author: Kubin, 
Kukatko.cz