Summary
Not even Czechoslovak cinema could go on ignoring the drug issue for ever. Thus in 1985 the experienced Zbyněk Brynych took it upon himself to direct this crime thriller based on the eponymous novel by Vladimír Vítek (a pseudonym for mining engineer Vladimír Popov). Drawing on his experience with the crime genre, the author of the script, Vojtěch Měšťan (among other writing credits, Smrt stopařek (Death of Hitch-Hikers, 1979) constructed the plot around the felonious activities of the international narcotics mafia which Czechoslovak counterintelligence agents successfully halt. Presenting the biggest hindrance to the successful rounding up of the drug dealers and consumers is international contract killer Barták (Rudolf Jelínek). He is sent to Czechoslovakia to liquidate all the collaborators… To this day, this “socially engaged” film manages to draw the interest of viewers due to its numerous implausible and unwittingly comic situations.
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