After a long battle for the rights, during which Czech New Wave director Jirí Menzel literally beat off competing producers with a stick, the legendary novel by Bohumil Hrabal finally comes to the screen. Czech literary lion Hrabal provided the source for six of Menzel’s previous works, including the Oscar-winning Closely Watched Trains. I Served the King of England, a beguiling black comedy set during the turbulent middle decades of the 20th century, follows the fortunes of ambitious but apolitical Czech Everyman, Jan Díte (Ivan Barnev as a youth; Oldrich Kaiser in his later years). It’s a saga of opportunism, identity, money, sex and beer. Diminutive Díte, who’s fascinated by the fact that everyone, rich or poor, will drop to their knees to pick up coins, moves from selling sausages to serving in a pub. Passing on to fine hotels, he’s taught the tools of his trade by a maître d’ (Martin Huba), who once served the king of England. Díte’s dream of owning a luxury establishment and finding a wife (Julia Jentsch) paradoxically comes true, thanks to his collaboration with the Nazis. After the triumph, however, comes the inevitable fall...

Menzel retains the poetic style of his source while sustaining its audience appeal. The film won four Czech Lions (including Best Film and Best Direction) as well as the Berlin Festival’s FIPRESCI prize.

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