Michal Horáček and Petr Hapka, two inseparable friends and collaborators, would have celebrated the 40th anniversary of their cooperation in 2024. But composer Hapka left his principal lyricist Horáček ten years ago when he died prematurely of Alzheimer’s disease. After the composer’s death, Michal Horáček, left alone as a lyricist, tried to win more recognition on the Czech popular music scene. Yet none of his later projects, save for The Czech Calendar, was as successful with and admired by the listeners, musicians, singers, and critics as the records with melodies composed by Petr Hapka. That’s why Horáček decided to minimise his lyrical work and now devotes his life to activities other than show business and entrepreneurship.
Hapka & Horáček wrote some 100 chansons and songs which have fundamentally changed the tendencies of the Czech popular music. These include, for instance, Levandulová, Dívám se dívám, S cizí ženou v cizím pokoji, V penziónu Svět, Kocour se schoulil na tvůj klín, Na hotelu v Olomouci, Bude mi lehká zem and others.
In this hour-long documentary produced by Czech Television, writer and director Patrik Ulrich looks back on the collaboration of this original songwriting duo, revealing the secrets of their exceptionally successful collaboration and mentioning the major milestones of their work. Michael Kocáb, Lucie Bílá, Ondřej Brzobohatý, Bára Štěpánová, Petra Hapková, Zora Ulla Keslerová and other personalities also share their memories, observations, and experience in the documentary.