Mima (Dagmar Havlová) is the fastest ambulance driver there is - which
isn't always a good thing, because she gets into pointless races with
other cars, often much better ones than her ambulance, but she usually
wins because she's taking risks left and right. Then though she hopelessly
loses out to the Ferat of Luisa (Jana Brezková), an actual racecar, which
endlessly bugs her. Later though, Luisa gives her a chance to check out
the Ferat while she complains about pain in one of her feet. And weirdly
enough, the speed pedal of the Ferat has a weird shape - might there be a
connection? Yet later, Mima passes an accident site - the Ferat has
crashed and Luisa is fighting for her life. The next day, Mima is hired
as Luisa's replacement and quits as an ambulance driver - much to the
dismay of Dr Marek (Jirí Menzel), the ambulance doctor paired with her
who's secretly in love with her. Marek tries to find out what has happened
to Luisa, but learns she has died already. Thing is, her corpse seems to
be gone ... Marek meets Dr Kaplan (Jan Schmid), an eccentric scientist
who tells him the Ferat is really a vampire, driving on human blood and
thus destined to eventually kill his driver. Marek dismisses the idea of
course, but on one hand, the idea gives him nightmares, on the other, he
finds more and more evidence to support the theory - especially when
having sex with Luisa's sister Klára (also Jana Brezková) in Luisa's bed
and accidently smashing a bottle full of blood while doing so ... now why
are there bottles of blood in Luisa's room, unless ... The day of Mima's
big race: Mima seems weak, as if she has suffered from severe bloodloss,
and the medication she's taking only supports that theory, but she
participates. Weirdly enough, Marek finds evidence that Mima is not really
participating in the race, and during the race there are two reports that
she has crashed ... and yet she wins and it is indeed her who exits the
Ferat. Near the racetrack though, another Ferat is found, crashed and in
it Klára ... who turns out to actually be Luisa. Marek immediately
launches a publicity campaign against the Ferat company - and has to later
learn that he has played directly into the company's hands: You see, the
Ferat as such is only a mediocre car that looks fancy, but if rumour got
out it sucked blood, it will add the thrill many people are missing from
their lives to driving one. The regular Ferat will of course not run on
blood, that was just the publicity car for the race. And why was Mima
replaced with Luisa during the race: Well, Mima is at best a mediocre
rallye driver while Luisa is top. Problem is, whoever's driving the race
will almost certainly die before completion, so Mima had to be swapped for
Luisa after the start, but after Luisa had crashed, she had to be swapped
for Mima again. Mima is in tears that she had only been a pawn in the
game of the Ferat company, and all her dreams of becoming a race driver
are lieing in shambles before her ... so she snatches the bloodsucking
Ferat, takes off her shoe and socks to have direct contact to the speed
pedal, and drives off, until she ... On the outside a horror
film, Ferat Vampire is actually a dark and clever satire of car
culture as such. And while the story often borders the trashy side, it's
kept interesting and indeed intelligent by a very subtle and unexcited
directorial effort, a clever play with genre elements, a love for the
macabre, and of course plenty of unexpected but fun plottwists. Add to
this an interesting and unusual cast of characters played by a very decent
cast of actors, and you've got yourself a pretty good, pretty unusual
film!
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