Czechs explained: The bizarre forest mishap that became a Czech meme legend

An exhibition of the late, great David Lynch’s artwork opened this week at Prague’s DOX. So for this edition of Czechs Explained, it’s tempting to make some Lynchian connections.

Those who remember Twin Peaks’ Log Lady—the eccentric middle-aged forest-dweller whose wooden oracle offers cryptic warnings to Laura Palmer—will be fascinated to discover that Czechia has its own version: a woman forever linked to the woods, mystery, and endless memes. Enter Bába pod kořenem (Grandma Under the Root).

But unlike Lynch’s log-clutching prophet, this woman’s fame is rooted (literally) in a very different kind of story.

On July 25, 2012, Zdeňka Novotná, a 57-year-old woman from Prague, was vacationing with friends at a campsite near the village of Řídelov. Novotná took a solo stroll in the forest that evening and stumbled straight into viral history.

Roughly 50 meters from her cabin, she tripped and got physically wedged beneath a spruce tree root. In shock, she couldn’t call for help—just banged on the root in vain. Her friends searched but failed to find her, even from nearby. She was discovered the next morning, 11 hours later, tired, bruised, and possibly questioning her life choices.

The story might have ended there, except for the sensational TV Nova news segment titled 11 Hours of Horror and Hopelessness. This featured Novotná awkwardly reenacting her entrapment for the cameras, with a certain Lynchian quality.

Her friends also reenacted their fireside activities—drinking beer, grilling sausage, and acting oblivious to their friend’s distress—aside from calling out the now-legendary “Zdenoooo!” This line, along with “zahřívala mě teplá moč” (“warm urine warmed me”), has become ingrained in Czech internet slang.

The original TV Nova report was uploaded to YouTube and had amassed approximately 1.1 million views by September 2022.

Within days, Bába pod kořenem had entered Czech folklore. The video has since been remixed, autotuned, and re-uploaded. People printed T-shirts and tote bags. Fans created operatic arias and folk ballads. The location of the incident became a tongue-in-cheek pilgrimage site. An Easter egg was included in the Czech-designed video game sensation Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

In 2022, Novotná ran for municipal office with the ODS party—and later told iDnes she wasn’t thrilled with how the TV segment made it seem like everyone was drunk. “That was definitely not true,” she said.

The Bába pod kořenem saga encapsulates some essential truths about Czech humor: dark, absurd, deadpan, and deeply rooted in real-life ridiculousness. The tale is a microcosm of Czech campfire culture, with its reverence for beer, sausage, and mildly chaotic misadventure, preferably in the forest.

It’s become so ingrained in Czech life that an action figure of Bába pod kořenem is being sold. Popular YouTuber Kovy dressed up as Novotná on Halloween. According to one report, MMA fighter Viktor Pešta named a fighting technique after her.

Now, Bába pod kořenem is getting the full Lynchian treatment. Her bizarre overnight ordeal has inspired a full-blown B-movie: Kořenový vězeň (The Root Prisoner).

The film is the brainchild of David Paškevič, a filmmaker and B-movie connoisseur who runs Kino Balt, Prague’s go-to cinema for gloriously bad films, known for screening titles like Velocipastor and Zombeavers.

The Root Prisoner reimagines Novotná’s forest misadventure with surreal twists: a giant talking sausage named Lord Špekáček, absurd folklore elements, and cameos by Czech viral icons. It premiered at the Naruby Festival and begins screenings at Kino Balt on July 1.