H.M. Deserters

1918, a provincial barracks of the Austro-Hungarian army. Inside are Czechs, Jews, Italians and Poles; the empire is about to fall apart but discipline in the barracks continues. There is a lieutenant who torments the soldiers. One day they humiliate the man and run from the barracks. On the road to Budapest they change clothes and try to pass as the escort of a veterinary commission. Janusz Majewski's film is one of the best loved comedies in Poland, and it never turns heavy despite running over two and a half hours. The mould is the army comedy, but what sits underneath it is the last days of the empire: nobody knows any longer in whose name they are fighting, so deserting does not count as treason either. Marek Kondrat and Wiktor Zborowski are at the front of the cast. The cast is multilingual and the confusion of languages carries a large part of the comedy.