A failed med student becomes death's errand boy — and he's weirdly good at it.
Hynek Michánek wants to study medicine but fails his entrance exams five times. He starts a job as an orderly in a district hospital where one of the doctors on the examining board works as well. He feels no-one takes him seriously and he loathes the doctors, who treat him with disdain. When an old man begs him to end his pain and suffering by helping him to die, Hynek gives him a "liberating" injection. But now he has done it once, he finds he can't stop. He continues killing other patients, even though he knows he can't get away with it for long.
Acting
Jiráček's blank-faced desperation is terrifyingly ordinary
Direction
Svátek makes hospital corridors feel like traps
Production
Grey-green palette that looks like illness itself
Director
Dan Svátek
Václav Jiráček
Hynek Michánek
Ivan Franěk
MUDr. Valencik
Marián Geišberg
Chief physician Havelka
Stanislav Zindulka
Mr. Sládek
Jana Krausová
Jana Valencikova
Zuzana Kronerová
Head Nurse
Petra Nesvačilová
Nurse Markéta
Marko Igonda
MUDr. Martin Ptacek
David Švehlík
MUDr. Simek
Jaromír Dulava
MUDr. Stepan Malý
Jaroslava Adamová
Miss. Vilémová
Jitka Smutná
Miss. Peterková
Dana Syslová
Mother of Hynek
Zdeněk Dušek
Stanislav Fišer
Mr. Machovec
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Svátek shot in an actual Czech district hospital; some extras were real medical staff.
The film channels post-communist Central European cinema's obsession with institutional rot and small men with petty power.
CZ
