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Ostre sledované vlaky is a rarity -- a internationally acknowledged masterpiece made in a Communist-dominated country at the height of the Cold War. Set in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi occupation, the film nonetheless has a light-hearted tone seldom found in films set in so grim a time. The protagonist, a young railway worker named Milos (Vaclav Neckar), goes through many normal coming-of-age events and a few abnormal ones: volunteering for suicide missions could easily put a halt to further maturity. The film was more popular with international critics than with Czech government officials, who were openly disdainful of the acclaim that it received. Honors collected by Ostre sledované vlaky included a Best Foreign Language Oscar, where it won over another Communist-made film, Skupljaci Perjathe, a Romany-language motion picture produced by Yugoslavia.