Karel Berman

Miller’s daughter Zuzanka Vojířová, betrothed to Ondřej Zachar, hesitates before marriage when Lord Peter Vok of Rožmberk invites her to his castle. There she bears his son Petříček, but his wife hides the child. After Vok’s death in battle, Zuzanka is expelled and lives as a beggar, reunited with her son and former fiancé, finding solace in the continuation of the Rožmberk lineage.

Film makes the creative process visible by letting its narrative flow in the mind of a foreign director who is researching a film about Franz Kafka in Prague. Based on the principle of dreams and free association, segments unfold that deal with the various points of view that Kafka's work, personality and fate offer. In the labyrinth of his mind, the fictional director projects himself into situations from the author's life, with Kafka himself as his guide. At the same time, he delves into the history of the persecution of the Jews and glimpses the monstrosity of the bureaucratic apparatus that Kafka anticipated but could not have foreseen the monstrous size and function it would grow to a few years after his death in the institutionalized genocide and overall machinery of Nazism.

The director of the company Restaurants and Canteens arrives to attend a screening of a film made in various restaurants. A group of villagers come in to one of the restaurants for their lunch. The two waiters carry on chatting and ignore their customers. The head waiter finally brings them a crumpled menu, but whatever they order, he crosses off the menu and urges them to order something they do not want. In another restaurant a customer complains he has found a button in his sauce. The waiter promises to get him another portion but, once out of sight, he simply takes the button out of the food and brings back the same plate on which he has carelessly rearranged the food. Other customers are trying to pay but the staff point to the waiter with the wallet; he, however, is absorbed in watching a chess game and is neglecting his duties.

Set in a South Bohemian village, this faithful film version of Smetana’s opera follows farmer Krušina’s plan to marry his daughter Mařenka to wealthy Vašek. Mařenka loves Jeník, a stranger. Through matchmaking schemer Kecal’s plots and revealed identities, true love triumphs in a festive village wedding.