A robbery in a Prague jeweler's shop results in the shop manager Kubát and his deputy Litera being shot and wounded. The culprits take the jewelery away in a stolen car and that very night hide the loot tens of kilometers outside Prague in a forest. Then the three robbers part with each other. One of them, Burian, leaves in the same car, the other two, Duda and Hovorka, take to flight in another car, which soon ends up in a car crash. Hovorka dies in the accident, but Duda survives and hides in an abandoned cottage. Burian is arrested, Duda is traced out by a police dog. Duda confesses to the robbery to the criminologist Málek, but refuses to say where is the jewelery. The robber then begins to shoot and Málek kills him in self-defense. The court fails to prove Litera's involvement in the robbery and the only one convicted is Burian. The disappointed Málek leaves the police and begins to work as a cab driver.
Direction
Polák's claustrophobic framing traps characters in systems they can't escape.
Acting
Matyáš carries Málek's collapse with minimal dialogue, maximum resignation.
Director
Jindřich Polák
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during the Prague Spring's brief thaw, the film's institutional cynicism almost certainly got Polák in trouble with censors.
The stolen jewels are never recovered — a deliberate narrative void suggesting crime outlasts any individual punishment.
XC
