Markéta Valentová

Four short stories depicting the private life of Czechoslovak soldiers. In the short story "The Pheasant", the hardened corporal Kony takes revenge on the bullying of the new recruit Lubos. On the way to get a tank repaired, however, a manly friendship is born between the two men. The story Potato depicts a brigade during which, despite the prohibitions of a strict professor, soldiers and students become close at an evening disco. The buns bring to life the problems of military love: Štěpánka prefers Peter to Honza, but pays heavily for her mistake. The film closes with the short story "The Solution", in which a lieutenant from Slovakia has problems with the arrangement of his family life.

The film tells the story of an enthusiastic young man who joins a textile factory in the late 1950s and assumes that a promising career awaits him - the protagonist is therefore constantly comparing himself to his favourite literary model, the equally ambitious Julian Sorel from Stendhal's fresco The Red and the Black. The result, however, lacks the necessary conviction, the ability to draw the viewer into his world, and remains too contrived, as the chosen period has become a mere non-committal backdrop for amorous games.

A red haired Petra is not your ordinary girl - in addition to her regular "girly" interests she's also a goalie in boys football team.

In the mid-eighties, screenwriter and director Jaroslav Balík tried to give voice to the problems of an ambitious young woman who decides to get back to work after a few years spent on maternity leave. NFA.CZ