Firefighters in blaze and blaze

It is often in the small films that the biggest themes are hidden — thus also in Miloš Forman's last film, before he left the Czech Republic, went to the United States and hit it off with 'Cuckoo's Nest. ' 'Firefighters in Fire and Flame' depicts a party in a local firemen's corps — with a fabulous look for comical upstages, conflicts and humiliations... peppered with vodka and party music.

The film was banned by the Communist Party because the firefighters' union found it defamatory. A better justification is probably that the film is an allegory of life behind the Iron Curtain in 1968 -- a description of the mechanisms of a corrupt, forlorent and patriarchal society. In the same year, when the Czech New Wave and other cultural life were reduced to room for manoeuvre after the Soviet-led invasion of Prague, 'Firemen in Fire and Flame' was shelved for 20 years anyway.

Director: Miloš Forman
Starring: Milada Ježková, Josef Šebánek, Jan Vostrkil
Country/year: Czechoslovakia, 1968
Running time: 73 min.
Formato: DCP
Language: English subtitles
Age limit: Allowed for children over 15
Original title: Hoří, más Panenko

Part of the series: Miloš Forman: Ambassador of Anarchy
Forman's films are often hilarious, but never just comedies. “I don't tell stories in black and white. I tell stories in gray,” he himself said. The Cinematek will unfold from 13 October the entire Miloš Forman feature film work — with the Czechoslovak films in autumn 2026 and the American films in early 2027.