Three boys. One joke. The Gestapo doesn't laugh.
During the Nazi occupation of a Czech city civilians are being rounded up on the slightest of pretexts and shot. One day three high school boys who crack jokes about a recently deceased "hero of the Reich" are pulled out of school by the Gestapo.
Acting
Smolík's trembling restraint as Professor Málek breaks you.
Direction
Krejčík turns a classroom into a pressure cooker of dread.
Writing
Dialogue so ordinary it becomes unbearable.
Director
Jiří Krejčík
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot during Czechoslovakia's thaw period, this was one of the first films to confront domestic WWII trauma honestly.
Based on Jan Drda's short story 'Vyšší princip'—the 'higher principle' refers to Málek's utilitarian calculus, not heroism.
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