-- How to say in Czech... "Do you love him?" -- Milujеs ho? -- Milujеs ho... So... Miljuеs ho? -- Miluji tebe.
Once it was. The Irish people spreading out all over the world, now we have the world immigrating to Ireland. So a nameless "guy" (Glen Hansard), who is basking on a street , meets a "girl" (Marketa Irglova), a Czech emigrant. She sells flowers there to earn her living. He belts out songs on a battered guitar and pines for his long-gone girlfriend, she is raising her daughter, day by day becoming more and more fatigue. During the days, the guy fixes vacuum cleaners, which leads to a nice visual joke of the "girl" pulling a Hoover through the heart of Dublin. She cannot see her life without music. He too. She likes his songs and begins to accompany him on the piano.
So both of those unlucky ones get infected by each others bad luck and decide to change their strange lifes - a typical plot of a cinИma-vИritИ. The guy accepts all the risks and records demos on a professional studio with his new friend.
The film is very realistic, it costed only 160 000 dollars, with ordinary people in crowd scenes, with ordinary flats instead of scenery, with ordinary musicians instead of actors.
The characters heroes feel, that they are really close to each other, but they cannot find words to voice it. They are happy, playing music, this is the language they speak. But happiness usually doesn't last long, they have to go separate ways, they have to make a decision and they know for sure: they won't be together.
The "guy" flies to London to make a career and the "girl" stays with her daughter, old mother, husband and a new piano. They will remember these days forever, their feelings are clear, they are not spoilt yet and the sadness they feel is bright. They stay on the threshold of something new, hoping for the best.
The camera is moving away, the window of the "girls" house is lost in a in the midst of other windows. The story is lost in the midst of other stories.