Michal Gazdík

Slovakia, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. The family of the young Jewish Martin Friedmann gathers to celebrate his bar mitzvah and make a solemn promise that they will all meet again a year later around the same table; but the storms of war and anti-Semitic fanaticism will lead each of them down very different paths.

February 1948. The struggle of decisive social forces for the heart of Europe.

The life of the Ťapák family is joyless. Twelve of them live in one room, no one considers that it is possible to live differently. They have already gotten used to it - they have no desire to change anything - after all, it has been that way for a long time. The heaviness of the Ťapák house is only disturbed by the bride Iľa, Paľ's wife. She is a midwife in the village. But they only want one thing - to have peace, quiet. This is how it goes day after day. Without excitement, slowly, with a bitter, almost imperceptible relationship to each other and to life in the village. The tension is only brought here by Ilina's efforts for change, to which the family members no longer even react. The smartest of the family is Anča. However, she does not want to become Ilina's companion. Both legs have been crippled since childhood, so she only watches her sister-in-law's activities with envy.

Even a strict and not very popular teacher can achieve extraordinary popularity with his pupils. When their favourite teacher breaks his leg just before a bicycle trip, he is replaced by his strict colleague. Although his involuntary charges are not enthusiastic at first, they eventually become convinced that it is not good to immediately reject a person just because one does not get along with him at first...

The economic crisis in the early 1930s also affected the inhabitants of the distinctive Moravian-Slovak countryside. The protagonist and his family returned to their native cottage from the city because he could not find work anywhere. But his younger brother does not welcome him with open arms...