Never heard of the film? Don't worry, you're not alone. When ads for it started to appear in The Prague Post a few weeks ago, I thought it was just another poorly marketed horror flick. But then I got an invite to the Nov. 30 DVD launch party at the swanky Red Hot & Blues, where I got some behind-the-scenes gossip on the making of a "cult classic."

Rexpatriates may (shockingly) never win an Academy Award, but, after meeting the overly enthusiastic production team — producer Jefe Brown, director Nancy Bishop and screenwriter Tony Laue — it's hard to fight the urge to cough up 300 Kč ($14) for a copy of their "baby." Call it curiosity, voyeurism, guilt. ... In the end, it's just nice to support your fellow expats. Especially when they're passing out free half-liters of Herold, some of best damned beer you've had since landing in the Czech Republic.

Red Hot & Blues had the movie playing continuously on two screens. The sound was turned off, and I arrived just in time to catch the last lingering shot — a man staring at the camera with a frightening smile on his face. In his hands is a distorted clown mask, which he slips around his ears and then looks back up at the audience.

The image is enough to give anyone nightmares. What exactly were the filmmakers thinking?

Brown laughed. "That's the Old Crone," he told me before reciting Kafka: "Prague doesn't let go. This old crone has claws."

The quote was the impetus behind the film, which is basically a riff on cultural dislocation in Prague and how hard it is for expats to leave the Golden City. It was Alan Levy, the original editor-in-chief of The Prague Post, who first coined the phrase "rexpat" to describe an expat who goes home, realizes he can't get Prague out of his mind, and returns.

"We felt we had a story to tell," explained Bishop, who has lived here since the mid-'90s and thought it was about time someone did a movie about the city's unique expat community.

"It's a mock documentary," she said, adding that the film is "full of self-mockery."

Rexpatriates debuted to enthusiastic expat audiences in Prague in 2004, then played at a number of international film festivals. The filmmakers had never considered selling the movie commercially, but, after receiving a slew of e-mails from fans asking where they could purchase a copy, Brown said he reconsidered.

Apologizing for the two-year lag between the movie's premiere and the DVD release, Brown told guests at the launch, "We have more time than we have money."

Isn't that always the case when you live in Prague?

Brown may have produced Rexpatriates on a shoestring budget, but that was no reason to skimp on the DVD party, which included a generous offering of guacamole, Buffalo wings, veggies and other fun finger foods. There was also a free-flowing beer tap.

"I wanted to do a little more of a tasteful space than somewhere downtown with a bunch of plastic cups," Brown explained to the throng of fans who came to help him celebrate.

But no matter how much one tries to move away from that frat-party atmosphere, there is something about expat soirées that just screams high school. And this was no exception. The launch at Red Hot & Blues started on a polite, cordial note — then about halfway through the evening, the alcohol kicked in. Suddenly, the talk moved from movie premieres to libidos.

One inebriated partygoer even had the audacity to ask me to rate him on a scale of one to 10. That line didn't work back in the States, and it certainly doesn't work here.