| Director | Juraj Herz |
|---|---|
| Genre | comedy drama, comedy film, drama film, horror film, thriller film |
| Runtime | 96 min |
| Country | Czechoslovakia |
The film takes place against the backdrop of the political radicalization of Europe during the 1930s, specifically the demise of the golden era of the First Czechoslovak Republic and the installation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi Germany in 1939. It is also set in the aftermath of the death of Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, in 1933.
Karel Kopfrkingl works at a crematorium (his beloved "Temple of Death") in Prague. While taking his wife and children to visit the zoo to visit the leopard's cage where he first met his wife seventeen years previously, he mentions that he wishes to invite his new assistant Mr. Strauss to a gathering.
The gathering has many elderly people and those interested in funeral preparations. An "abstinent", Kopfrkingl wants no alcohol on the premises; only tea and "weak coffee" are to be served. He also puts out the cigar of a smoker. Kopfrkingl meets Strauss and tells him that he wants to take him on as an agent. Karel's wife Lakme compliments Strauss as being a good businessman and a Jew. Karel retorts that Strauss is a German surname but Lakme says names are not always what they appear. She says that her real name is Maria and that he only calls her Lakmé because of the opera; she reminds him that although he prefers the name Roman, his real name is Karel. Kopfrkingl just laughs and says that he is a "romantic". Kopfrkingl delivers a speech to them about the importance of cremation and the reincarnation that awaits them. It is clear that he is obsessed with his duties and believes he is not merely cremating the dead, but liberating the souls of the departed. Kopfrkingl gives a speech to the guests and reads excerpts from a book about Tibetan mysticism by David-Neel. This is his prized possession, one he frequently quotes from throughout the film (usually before committing murders).
At this gathering, Kopfrkingl meets Reinke, a former soldier who fought with him in the Austro-Hungarian army during W.W.I and who now works as a chemical engineer. Reinke is a supporter of Adolf Hitler who sees the annexation of Austria as liberation from unemployment and misery. He will introduce Kopfrkingl to the Nazi party. While browsing paintings he settles on a painting of Emiliano Chamorro Vargas that he brings home to his wife, claiming it is actually of Louis Marin. Reinke comes over to Kopfrkingl's house and describes in greater detail his support of Hitler and the good things the Nazis have done in Austria. He gives Kopfrkingl a flyer about joining the party, but Karel remains uncertain. He tells Reinke that he has been raised Czech, reads Czech and lives as a Czech, and that he has only "a drop of German blood". Reinke tells him that sensitive people like him can feel even just that one "drop".
Kopfrkingl shows the new assistant Mr. Dvorak the ropes at the crematorium. When discussing the crisis in Sudetenland Karel says he is not worried because he has "a drop of German blood". He asks a coworker he is smitten with to go on the tour of the facility with them but she refuses. Kopfrkingl shows Dvorak the catafalque and the coffin room. Dvorak bumps into a metal rod standing against the wall and Karel snaps at him not to throw it away because it could be very useful to them later. He also shows Dvorak a room filled with urns, all of which are filled with human ashes. Kopfrkingl is proud that he has "liberated" these people from the terrible sufferings of their life and sent them on to be reincarnated. Despite claiming to be moral and abstaining from smoking and alcohol, Kopfrkingl makes an unwanted sexual advance on the coworker he likes, visits a brothel run by "Mrs. Iris" (comically, the prostitute he chooses, named "Dagmar", is played by Vlasta Chramostová, the same actress who plays his wife) and drinks (though he assures his compatriots that it is only a "ceremonial glass"). He also has qualms about Mr. Dvorak's frequent smoking.
Karel takes his wife and children on visits to a carnival (in particular a wax museum displaying gruesome murders, severed heads and body parts) and to a boxing match, but it remains clear that he is aloof and cut off from them. At a Christmas Eve dinner, Karel openly mentions his new-found respect for the Nazi party and the Third Reich, which begins to worry his wife. On Reinke's orders, Kopfrkingl spies on a Jewish ceremony and makes a report at the Nazi-owned casino. Reinke thanks him for his work but warns him that his wife is possibly Jewish due to her having prepared a Jewish-style carp dinner for them on Christmas Eve and having hid an invitation from Reinke. He tells Karel that it will be impossible for him to get better positions within the party if he remains married to her.
Kopfrkingl, now under the sway of Reinke and his disturbed Buddhist beliefs, hangs his wife from a noose. He sees visions of himself as a Tibetan Buddhist monk assuring himself that he is doing the right thing by "liberating" his victims and that he will be rewarded by becoming the next Dalai Lama. The vision says he must prepare to journey to the eternal Fatherland in the Himalayas. Kopfrkingl delivers a eulogy for his wife, but it quickly descends into a Hitler-influenced mania about the importance of death in the new world order that the Führer is creating. Most of his former friends leave, but Reinke and his Nazi comrades are overjoyed and give him the Nazi salute.
Karel visits a brothel with his friend Reinke; they talk about Karel's son Mili. Karel says he is worried by how effeminate and weak he has become and that his mother's coddling is responsible. Reinke tells Karel that quarter-Jews will not be allowed to go to school or pursue careers in the Third Reich, so it is best to be rid of him. Karel then takes Mili on a trip to see the crematorium, taking a "scenic" shortcut through the graveyard. In the crematorium's basement, Karel kills his son with a metal rod in the belief that he is "liberating his soul".