A young wife on the edge of motherhood, and a modern city that promises her far more than it intends to deliver, set the tone for We Have Never Been Modern, a 2023 Czech-Slovak drama directed by Matěj Chlupáček. The film pairs a period setting with a mystery-tinged unease, following a household that looks orderly on the surface and is not.
What is We Have Never Been Modern about?
Helena is about to give birth, married to a successful young factory manager, and standing at what looks like the doorway to a bright, modern future. The film follows her through that threshold moment, tracing how the promise of progress in her city and household sits against a quieter, more unsettled reality underneath it. As a drama shading into mystery, the story is less interested in a single twist than in the gap between how a life is supposed to look and how it actually feels from the inside, especially for a woman whose position depends entirely on her husband's standing.
About the cast
Eliška Křenková plays Helena, with Miloslav König, Milan Ondrík, Luboš Veselý, Richard Langdon, Marián Mitaš, and Anton Šulík ml. filling out the supporting cast. Director Matěj Chlupáček builds the film around this ensemble's ability to hold a controlled, period-accurate surface while letting tension show through in smaller, quieter moments rather than overt confrontation.
Context & significance
Set in a Czechoslovak industrial town on the cusp of modernization, We Have Never Been Modern uses its historical setting to examine a familiar tension: the gap between an era's promise of progress and the private cost paid by the people, particularly women, expected to embody it. The Czech-Slovak co-production draws on a shared regional film tradition of quiet, socially observant drama, and its mystery elements grow out of character and atmosphere rather than genre mechanics.
Watching We Have Never Been Modern on Ktime
We Have Never Been Modern streams on K-Time with a free account login, and the film's page can be browsed without signing in at all. It is available with a Persian dub, giving Farsi-speaking viewers a way to follow the story's dialogue directly. K-Time is built around a Farsi-first viewing experience for the Iranian diaspora, with the audio track ready to select as soon as you press play.