Life in a mountain village is changed forever when the courier who brings the weekly movie to the local cinema, the centre of the close-knit community's social life, is killed in a road accident.
The townsfolk, cut off from the wider world by the snows of winter, are unaware of the profound changes that are occurring. Communism is coming to an end in their country, but they are are completely unaware of the upheavals beyond the mountain ranges that encompass their tiny world. The local innkeeper discovers a pile of discarded film scraps in the cellar, and enlists a local teenage boy, who loves the cinema, to assemble "films" out of the disparate pieces. Slowly this boy, Ladu, played by Matej Matejka, who at the beginning of the film seemed just another callow youth among the characters, assumes the role of the main character in the plot, with very special talents that are just starting to become realised. The films that he creates, utilising such disparate elements as "La Grande Illusion", "La Bete Humaine" and the silent classics, "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "Die Nibelungen" and "Battleship Potemkin", cause a revolutionary reaction amongst the simple villagers that mirror in a small way the wider revolution that is going on, unbeknown to them, in the wider context. From here the plot elements become unpredictable and fascinating, as Ladu observes the unrest he has created. A fine film, well told, photographed and acted: highly recommended.
