Cirkus Maximum is a family film about a rift between two brothers and their father. Such “biblical” conflicts, Cain and Abel or Jacob and Esau, recur often in literature, from The Grapes of Wrath to The Godfather. With The Godfather the film shares the idea of an extended family headed by the father, the kind of family that in Bohemia has survived almost only among travelling showmen and circus performers. But modern times catch up even with circus dynasties. When Ferdinand, the father and head of the circus, complains bitterly that circuses used to stick together like families, while nowadays a family that sticks together is a circus attraction, everyone has to work out how to save the international circus festival, and Cirkus Maximum itself. The film shows world-class acts of the classical circus from an unusual angle: behind the scenes, in rehearsal and, thanks to modern camera technology, from the performers’ own point of view, all of it without CGI, live and in real time. A film for children with their parents, and for parents with their children.
