I Served the King of England

Bohumil Hrabal's book I Served the King of England is among the pinnacles of his body of work. Mirrored in the fate of a young Czech waiter's life are the hopes, conflicts, dramas, and defeats of Czechoslovak history in the last century. Based on that book, director Jiří Menzel presents a film about a man in the twilight of his life seeking images of the era he has lived through. About a man who yearned to fill his life with wealth and beauty no matter what the circumstances, a man whose luck always lay in his encountering some misfortune. (official distributor synopsis)