The Good Soldier Švejk

The First World War breaks out and Švejk, who makes his living selling dogs in Prague, is called up. He carries out every order to the letter. That is exactly why the army cannot cope with him: he ends up in hospital, in jail, as a chaplain's batman, and never quite reaches the front. He answers every question with total honesty, and every answer he gives drives some officer out of his mind. The absurdity of the war and of the bureaucracy comes out through his obedience. Karel Steklý directs the Czech film, adapting Jaroslav Hašek's novel. A hundred and eight minutes, with Rudolf Hrušínský as Švejk, a part he became identified with. Hašek died before he could finish the book; even unfinished it has been read all over the world.