A REPORT ON THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS

Seven individuals dressed in fancy clothes are seated comfortably on the grass enjoying a picnic: an idyllic slice of bourgeois life. The conversation drones on pleasantly, the ladies freshen up one last time in the nearby stream, everyone prepares to proceed to a party. On the way to the festivities, the group is held up by a gang of men whose leader possesses a strangely sadistic sense of humour – as luck would have it, he appears to be a guest at the celebration too. Jan Neměc’s cinematic parable of a totalitarian banquet, featuring a cast of friends assembled from the Czech film scene, was outlawed immediately upon its completion until the Prague Spring. General Secretary and Stalinist Antonín Novotný had very little sense of humour, it would seem.