“A delicious parody-fable of Slavic bureaucracy.”
Milos Forman cast actual firemen to play the hapless volunteers who decide to throw a party for their department’s old chief. Who’s stealing the raffle prizes? Will the beauty pageant contestants show up? Nothing goes right as they invite all the small town to the ball. Presumed to be a commentary on the floundering Czech leadership, the film was ‘banned forever’ in Czechoslovakia following the Russian invasion and prompted Forman’s move to America.
