Lenin, Lord and Mother

It is 1952 and the ten-year old Honzík Domnosil and his four-year old sister Petruška return to Prague from their aunt's countryside cottage. They do not recognize their mother, named Vlasta, after such a long time. When Honzík almost falls down an elevator shaft, the fragile mother, flustered, faints. Her husband was in a concentration camp during the German occupation but the couple divorced after his return. The family does not profess any religion, just the opposite - the mother is an active member of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. Honzík becomes the target of bullying at his new school and the mother recommends him to be brave, reminding him of the Hussites. Honzík gets into a fight and, by mistake, bites the interfering schoolmaster in the leg which results in his blood poisoning. But Honzík thus earns respect even from the older schoolmates. Faking his mother's signature, he mars up his pupil's record book and does not avoid drubbing anyway. The boys often play a game called "pass check" with a football in the streets of Prague's Old Town. The Stalin monument is built at Letná and Honzík attends a lesson where he is enchanted by the story about Christ's miracles. The mother introduces the children to an "uncle" František - a kind man who nevertheless in no way shares Vlasta's communist enthusiasm. Honzík makes various mischiefs and the mother threatens to send him to a youth custody centre. His sister Petruška falls severely ill. The mother vainly begs her ex-husband, now an influential functionary, to obtain some penicilin, but the little girl fortunately recovers even without it. Honzík fruitlessly begs God for a good school report. He wants to run away from home with two friends. They, however, manage to stay at a Jewish cemetery only till dark and then all return home. Vlasta puts his son a suitcase behind the door but František intercedes for him. He then causes a scandal at a trade union meeting with his sarcastic comments on the bright future. Vlasta refuses to be with a "reactionary", but the couple eventually reconcile. The private doctor's' practices and shops in the neighbourhood gradually disappear. Honzík becomes a member of the Young Pioneers. Political processes are held and quarrels over them result in František's ultimate departure. Because of a reported mother's stay in hospital, Petruška goes to stay with the aunt and Honzík with the family of his classmate Senft. There are lots of toys in the parvenue flat but the boys are not allowed to play with them. The high officerl Senft mercilessly beats his son for a minor thing and the equally unkind Mrs Senftová throws Honzík out. It turns out that Vlasta is not actually in hospital but in prison because she, as a sincere communist, wrote a letter to the president protesting against the political processes. She is fortunately soon released. Stalin dies and president Gottwald dies, too, soon after. Honzík buys his mom one part of Stalin's writings in a secondhand bookshop just because of the nice colour of the hard cover, but the mother is not too pleased by the gift. The Stalin monument is triumphantly unveiled.