AllMovie

This feature marks a historical first, as the premier co-production between Albania and Czechoslovakia. As a coming-of-age-themed roman-a-clef by helmer Piro Milkani (who co-directed with his son Eno Milkani), the film's autobiographical quotient recalls both the Apu and the Antoine Doinel series. It dramatizes the experiences of a young man based squarely on Piro, during his studies at the FAMU film school in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The season at hand is summer - one of the carefree summers of the early 1960s, several years before the Prague spring. Three film students, all buddies - Slovak Artur, Czech Karel and Albanian Leke (Piro's alter ego) - roll into the rural Czech village of Ceský Šternberk to shoot their FAMU thesis film about a motorcycle factory. As the students' freewheeling, bohemian ways clash with the rural lifestyles of those about them, they begin to encounter a colorful and varied array of local characters. Meanwhile, Leke finds himself torn between loyalty to his country and loyalty to his kin, and sustains an undying romantic infatuation with the wife of the local chief of police.