A tragicomedy about people who are able to make use of the war situation for their own benefit. The Gavora family of four leave their secure village home blinded by the vision of a big career and easy earning of money in the capital city.
In 1965, during eminent trumpeter Louis Armstrong’s visit to Prague, Jan Spata then a young promising documentary filmmaker, created the report 'Hallo Satchmo'.
A young man tries to enter the building of the Mammoth Cybernetic Supermachines Research Institute again and again but each time the doorkeeper spots him and kicks him out. The youth finally arrives with all his friends and a huge live bear from the circus where he works as an accountant. He is finally allowed in where he explains to the members of the directorate that he wants to work at the Institute, since he graduated in cybernetics and, besides, he has invented a machine for forecasting time of death. When the conniving research manager learns that their director is going to die in two days, he hopes to rise to his position.
A military base. An awkward soldier. A statue of Bach. And suddenly all guns in the area change into music instruments. Great mystery is immediately found by TV station. And soon the military base becomes a stage for huge TV show.
A Song is a documentary etude on youth, made in the spirit of cinéma vérité. The film employs observational methods to examine popular leisure activities of the Czechoslovak youth in the 1960s, from going outdoors through various sporting activities to musical practices.
