Second part of the trilogy that began with Garden Shop: Friend of the Family. The war is over and Jindrich (Vilma's husband) and Otto (Ela's husband) are back from the concentration camps where they were deported by the Nazis. They seem recovered but the memory of their harrowing experiences haunts them.
Most of the movie is about Jindrich and Otto. Jindrich is unable to cope with the new socialist reality, loses his job and fantasizes about Czechoslovakia having been liberated by the Western allies and the superiority of Europeans over "steppe people". As a father, he is gruff, unjust and unsupportive of his preteenage daughter Daniela and prefers the company of Otto's son Karlik.
Otto reopens his fashionable hair salon in Prague and does well until the place is expropriated by the government. An incident involving Russian women officers causes his confinement in a psychiatric/correctional facility where he is brainwashed into taking his jailers' point of view against his wife and son and the rest of the family (he is the Deserter of the second part of the title). The movie ends in 1953 with Stalin's death, which causes a breath of fresh air to sweep Eastern Europe and awakens many hopes, many of them later unfulfilled.
I think this is the weakest chapter in the trilogy. It is somewhat propagandistic and its attempts to humor (the incident in Otto's shop) defy credibility and fall flat. It probably deserves viewing, if only as a bridge to Part 3 of the trilogy.
Most of the movie is about Jindrich and Otto. Jindrich is unable to cope with the new socialist reality, loses his job and fantasizes about Czechoslovakia having been liberated by the Western allies and the superiority of Europeans over "steppe people". As a father, he is gruff, unjust and unsupportive of his preteenage daughter Daniela and prefers the company of Otto's son Karlik.
Otto reopens his fashionable hair salon in Prague and does well until the place is expropriated by the government. An incident involving Russian women officers causes his confinement in a psychiatric/correctional facility where he is brainwashed into taking his jailers' point of view against his wife and son and the rest of the family (he is the Deserter of the second part of the title). The movie ends in 1953 with Stalin's death, which causes a breath of fresh air to sweep Eastern Europe and awakens many hopes, many of them later unfulfilled.
I think this is the weakest chapter in the trilogy. It is somewhat propagandistic and its attempts to humor (the incident in Otto's shop) defy credibility and fall flat. It probably deserves viewing, if only as a bridge to Part 3 of the trilogy.
