The year is 1980. Michal and Juraj are students at a theological seminary in totalitarian Czechoslovakia. Fearing the dissolution of their school, the tutors are moulding the seminarians into a shape satisfactory to the ruling Communist Party. Each of the young students must decide if he will give into the temptation and choose the easier way of collaborating with the regime, or whether he will subject himself to draconian surveillance by the secret police. Just a few years before the collapse of the totalitarian system, the servants of two powers and two belief systems collide.
“We’re living in a time when our politicians, and the media, as well, intimidate the society from all possible sides and people live in fear of the future. I would be glad if the audience was a bit more courageous after watching the film, and wouldn’t allow themselves to be controlled by fear, purposefully instilled in them by politicians. It’s important that we stand by the values for which we won’t have to be ashamed in front of the future generations. Pope John Paul II once said: ‘The history teaches us that democracy without values quickly transforms into a blatant or disguised totalitarianism.’” (Ivan Ostrochovský)
