Parallel Worlds

Krystof is a driven architect who puts his career ahead of almost everything, while Tereza lives with a looser, more reflective sense of what matters. They share a long relationship that slowly reveals how differently each of them perceives the world, with private fantasies, anxieties and routines that rarely line up. Scenes move between everyday arguments, quiet silences and moments that feel dreamlike, emphasizing how reality can look unlike itself depending on who is looking. The film follows their domestic life and emotional negotiations, showing the strain that mismatched priorities and divergent inner lives create without settling into a simple moral judgment. The film favors mood over plot, prompting viewers to weigh which private truth feels most convincing and ambiguous.

Directed by Petr Václav and credited to creator Marie Desplechin, Parallel Worlds premiered in 2001. The cast includes Karel Roden, Lenka Vlasáková and Martina Smuková, and the film fits within intimate, character focused Czech drama traditions with restrained cinematic style.

Box office totals for Parallel Worlds are not widely reported, and it did not make a visible commercial impact internationally. Its distribution appears to have been limited, mostly reaching festival audiences and regional arthouse screenings rather than mainstream theaters overall.

Critical response was sparse and generally negative, reflected in a very low user rating of 1.0 out of 10 from two votes. Reviewers and viewers who saw it noted its interest in perception, the clash between work and personal life, and how private fantasies erode shared reality over time subtly.

Parallel Worlds did not become a widely cited title, remaining obscure outside Czech film circles. Still, Karel Roden's involvement and the film's attention to interior life have given it small measure of interest among scholars and enthusiasts of Central European cinema and intimate relationship dramas who appreciate psychological realism today.