Garden Store: A Family Friend

The film trilogy Garden Store consists of three standalone films set against the backdrop of the most dramatic periods of the twentieth century, taking place before the beloved film Cosy Dens (1999). It tells the stories of three families: the family of an air force radio operator, the family of the owner of a hairdressing salon, and the family of the owner of a nursery. It spans 20 years in the lives of characters who were forced to live the best years of their lives in these turbulent times. The Family Friend is a melodrama set in the 1940s during the German occupation. Three young women and two children wait for the return of their imprisoned husbands and fathers. A devoted family friend and physician named Jiří selflessly supports the family community that the war has forced together. The film is a story of a love that could never be fulfilled, telling of loyalty, longing, guilt, and love, of departures and homecomings, of family, parents, and children. It is a family portrait seen through the eyes of women brought together by fate.