The Beginning of a Long Autumn

Jolana Marková and her daughter Johanka move to a small village from Prague. Johanka suffers from asthma and the mother hopes she will recover in the countryside. They move to an abandoned cottage inherited from their relatives, the Floriš family. The house is desolate and Johanka's schoolmates decide to help with cleaning. While trying to clean the well, they find a sculpture in it. It is a sculpture of the founder and first President of Czechoslowakia (1918 -1935) T. G. Masaryk which the villagers, concordantly with the secretary of the local National Committee, threw there after 1948. The sculpture's discovery brings back memories about the events surrounding the work many years ago as well as feelings of guilt and distant animosities. Havlíček wants to take the sculpture away - but it is autumn 1989, the outbreak of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, and TV and radio bring news about the dramatic events in Prague. In the morning, the old man Trvajík plays Masaryk's favourite song Run, Water, Run, on a flugelhorn. An old teacher secretly puts flowers on the place where Masaryk's sculpture once stood. At a village meeting, people press Havlíček to arrange for the return of the sculpture to its original setting. The old Trvajík reads out loud from his father's chronicle about the establishment of the Czechoslowak Republic. The citizens then leave to the town to attend a magician's performance. Jolana prepares to return to Prague with her daughter. While packing, they find an old letter written by Floriš in which the old communist said farewell before committing suicide because he was ashamed about what was going on. People in the town square emotionally sing another one of Masaryk's favourite songs, Son, Oh Son. The monument's pedestal, however, is still empty and the cleaned sculpture of the president observes everything from Floriš's garden