I served the King of England

Original movie title:
Obsluhoval jsem anglickeho krale
Country:
Czech Republic & Slovakia
Director:
Jiri Menzel
Cast:
Oldrich Kaiser, Ivan Barnev, Julia Jentsch
Awards:
Berlin 2007. – FIPRESCI AWARD
Golden Bear nomination

Synopsis:

Jan Dite is short in height but high in ambition. To put it bluntly, the young provincial waiter wants to became a millionaire. And he knows just how to do it: by hearing everything, seeing everything and using what he heard and saw. Armed with knowledge and an irrepressible wish to please, he soon leaves his first place of employment, a pub, for a luxury brothel and finally an elegant art Nouveau Prague restaurant. But by now it’s late 1930’s and things are changing: Hitler has taken the Sudetenland and is breaking apart Czecchoslovakia. Jan falls in love with Lisa, a Sudeten German proud of her Aryan blood. They marry and when Lisa returns from the front she has a fortune in rare stamps that Jews had left behind.
After her less than heroic death, Jan sells the stamps and becomes ..a millionaire. But he only has 3 years to enjoy his fortune: the new Communist regime puts him behind bars for 15 years, one for each of his millions. …Upon his release from jail, Jan is sent to live in a decrepit border town that was abandoned by the Germans. Here he finally finds the leisure to think about the events that shaped his life- and to reflect on what might have happened if he had played a different role in these events…

Hero of a new Jiri Menzel’ s title is rude and opportune, chased by everlasting wish of any smart boy. In best way of british serial Only fools and horses, one day he will be transformed into a millionare only by help of godess of fortune and God’s grace.