Who Is Afraid, Flees

A few years after the war, Miroslav Dudek, a young teacher came to the border village of Růžové Pole, where there are various people - the railman, Beran and his daughter, Jitka, several Gypsy families living and working at the farm and also Trabach, an dishonest book-keeper of the state owned farm, who is misusing the illiteracy of the workers. Dudek paints the devastated school in order to start teaching there. It seems there will be no children to teach. In the village are only Gypsy children and their parents don't consider it necessary to send them to school. Together with his friend Margitka, comes only the orphan, Jurka, whose parents died in a concentration camp and who is forced by the Gypsy boss Mižikár to steal alcohol in the shop. In the evening, the teacher comes to the farm, where Gypsy tenants are drinking, dancing and singing by a bonfire. The teacher strongly warns Mižikár about the law on obligatory school attendance for children. Dudek gains authority slowly and with difficulties. Kotlár, as the only one standing up against the ever-drunk Mižikár, sends his children to school. Later, others join them. The shepherd, Bihary, complains about bad payments for cheese. The teacher plays an old harmonium and this attracts a beautiful Gypsy singer to the school, Ilona. Her fiancé, Imre, is jealous and beats up the teacher. The disgusted Dudek decides to leave, but in the end he stays. Imre apologises to him and he decides, together with Ilona, to get a basic education. Soon they celebrate their wedding. Dudek forces Trabach to pay Bihary the right price. Trabach, full of hate, incites Mižikár to set the school on fire. The small Jurka steals keys from the book-keeper, so that the teacher gets evidence about his deceits. Trabach catches Dudek in the office, but he shoots the boy, unhappily, with a pistol. He is arrested and Jitka Beranová becomes the book-keeper. Children are singing to Jurek under the hospital windows. It is spring time. Five Gypsy families leave with Mižikár, four families stay. But it is not a defeat. A grammatically correct inscription on the bench proves to the teacher that his work was not in vain.