Film University: Firefighters in Fire and Flame

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: Filmuniversitetet
Under the heading 'Filmuniversitetet', Cinemateket focuses on key works of film history with inspiring introductions by Jesper Andersen, former programme editor at Cinemateket, and film teacher at the People's University Peter Skovfoged Laursen.