Francin (Jirí Schmitzer), manager of a small-town brewery, has a charming wife whose abundant blonde locks are an adornment to the town. Maryska (Magda Vásáryová) looks ethereal but loves meat and beer, while Francin is an ascetic. The strict members of the brewery board of directors come to audit the accounts, but are diverted from concentrating on Francin's detailed reports by Maryska, who has organized a pig-killing feast and is ably assisting the butcher. When she invites the old curmudgeons on the board to enjoy the fresh pork, they are too happy to agree. Francin doesn't know whether he is going to get a permanent contract. To make things worse his brother Pepin (Jaromír Hanzlík) - eccentric, noisy and garrulous - turns up on an indefinite visit.
Cutting it Short
An evocation of the childhood memories of Bohumil Hrabal in his provincial town of Nymburk, dominated by the local brewery.
