Hope

The fourth feature film by the Procházka-Kachyňa writer-director tandem is a highly acclaimed - but not fully appreciated - work. The film goes beyond the official idea of "constructive" stories with clearly defined positive and negative characters. Lucin Šavlíř, an alcoholic and thief, and good-hearted prostitute Magdalena are a pair of outsiders, an unlikely cadre at the construction of socialism. (Summer Film School)