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I Served the King of England

6.6

2,495

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Original title

Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (I Served the King of England)

Year

2006

Running time

118 min.

Country

Czech Republic

Director

Jiří Menzel

Screenwriter

Jiří Menzel. Novel: Bohumil Hrabal

Cast

Music

Ales Brezina

Cinematography

Jaromír Sofr

Producer

Co-production Czech Republic-Slovakia;

Genre

Comedy. Drama | Black Comedy

Synopsis

Jan Dítì (Ivan Barnev) is short in height, but high in ambition. To put it bluntly, the young provincial waiter wants to become a millionaire. And he knows just how to do it: by hearing everything, seeing everything, and creating opportunities at every turn. Armed with this knowledge and an irrepressible wish to please, he soon leaves his first place of employment, a pub, for a luxury brothel and, finally moving onto an elegant Art Nouveau Prague restaurant. But by the late 1930s, things are changing: Hitler has taken the Sudetenland region and is breaking apart Czechoslovakia. Jan falls in love with Líza (Julia Jentsch), a Sudeten German proud of her Aryan blood. They marry, and soon after Líza is sent to serve on the Polish front, while Jan remains behind to serve as a nurse in a Nazi SS Research Hospital, but when she returns, she has a fortune in rare stamps that Jews had ‘left behind’ … After Líza’s less than heroic death, Jan sells the stamps and becomes … a millionaire. But he only has three years to enjoy his fortune: the new Communist regime puts him behind bars for 15 years, one for each of his millions… Upon his release from jail, Jan is sent to live in a decrepit border town. Here Jan reflects on the events that have shaped his life – and to reflect on what might have happened if he had played a different role in these events.

Rankings Position

#49 Best Czech Movies of all time

Awards: 2007: Berlin Film Festival: International Critic Award FIPRESCI

2007: European Film Awards: Nominated for Audience Award

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I Served the King of England

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