Life in the Bugatti Step: The Czech Avant-Garde between the World Wars

The Czech racing driver Eliška Junková races from victory to victory in a Bugatti—and inspires the composer Jaroslav Ježek to write his Bugatti Step. It became a legendary hit and the anthem of the 'young savages' who decisively shaped Czech music history in the 1920s and 1930s: Among them were Erwin Schulhoff, Jaroslav Ježek, Alois Hába, Victor Ullmann, Vítězslava Kaprálová—the first Czech woman conductor—and Bohuslav Martinů, the composers of the moment. 

The one-hour documentary “Life in Bugatti Step: The Czech Avant-Garde between the World Wars” by Anne-Kathrin Peitz explores the personal and artistic lives of selected composers, bringing to life this fertile, colourful, joyful, playful, and experimental era of music and art.