This existential drama about the disillusionment of a Communist military officer was based on a novel by Jifií Kfienek that had in the sixties paradoxically received an award in a military literary contest held. Lieutenant Ernest is at his wits end in both his personal and professional lives. He searches for a way out though memories and daydreaming and in the end,suicide. After being banned for this her directorial debut, the director Drahomíra Vihanová (b. 1930) was only able to make her second featurelength film in 1994. She did however enrich Czech cinematography with a series of remarkable documentary films including the documentary Metamorphosis of My Girlfriend Eva about the controversial jazz singer Eva Olmerová. In her most recent film The Pilgrimage of Students Peter and Jacob (2000), she examines coexistence between the majority community and the Romany minority.