Libuše Beranová

The evils of totalitarianism provide the central message of this Czech-French drama. The film is set in a quiet, rural village headed by a suspicious, conspiring group of nasty leaders. Evald has come there to measure water levels. Surrounding the fortress near the village are soldiers

A young engineer, Štěpán Pavlík, dreams of becoming a cosmonaut.

The film is a metaphor for the Cold War. It depicts two neighbouring nations: peace loving Fortuna and the not so peaceful land of the Steel City.

Blazenka likes to imagine she is on a desolate island and has to find a way how to survive. After the death of her mother she stays together with her baby brother and has to take care of the family. In this difficult situation, she plays this role-game that helps her to deal with the sudden loss of her mother.

The female employees of the poultry-processing factory find relief from their monotonous work in chatting about weddings and marriages. The very young Zdena (Marta Vancurová), too, dreams about a white veil and an entourage of bridesmaids. On her return home from work, she runs into a peculiar man on an abandoned road who pertinaciously offers to read her palm for a few crowns to buy soup. His augury is rather usual - wealth and poverty, suffering and happiness. Then however, he declares that Zdena must marry exactly on 3 November of that year otherwise she will be unhappy.

Un sacristán que gusta de vestir como cura es invitado, por uno de los habitantes del pueblo, a ser pastor en una iglesia sin párroco. Un profesor ateo se molesta con él y trata de avergonzarlo de varias formas, incluyendo ser atrapado con la belleza local, Majka. (FILMAFFINITY)

Dos chicas jóvenes concluyen, mientras toman el sol en bikini, que "si en este mundo todo está corrompido, estaremos corrompidas nosotras también". Así se activa el mecanismo que pone en marcha la película: una tras otra, se irán produciendo escenas inconexas en las cuáles las dos protagonistas juegan a ser malas con su entorno. Engañan a hombres maduros para comer gratuitamente, escriben y dibujan en las paredes de su casa, improvisan un baile en un cabaret para boicotear el número que está en escena, engullen y despedazan los manjares de un banquete preparado para otros. Rompiendo toda linealidad narrativa y empleando la técnica collage tanto a nivel visual como auditivo.

Michal's father and his friends are stigmatized by their war experience and the post-war social deformations in which they took part either directly, or watched them cowardly and in silence. They are trying to repress their feelings of guilt and justify their behavior to the young generation with memories of their heroic war feats. Michal, however, does not want to have anything to do with their problems. He subconsciously perceives the unpleasant atmosphere in the family as well as his father's hypocrisy. After one of many quarrels with his father, he runs away from home, determined to go his own way.

A passionate communist worker is discouraged by the changing political climate and the failure of his peers to live up to his ideals.