AllMovie

It's pretty clear that Stalin adopted a "collectivist farm" policy for reasons which had everything to do with destroying the pre-existing society, and virtually nothing to do with legitimately Maxist theories or, for that matter, principles of agriculture. As a result, millions of rural people were relocated and resettled over the years, many of them dying of starvation in the process. Nonetheless, collectivization became an almost religious tenet when new countries were brought into the communist (Soviet Russian) fold. In this Czech movie, the story of the widow of a former landowner who was stripped of all his belongings is told. The man himself has died, but his widow is determined that somehow she will manage to get him buried in the family crypt, despite opposition from party officials. However, her activities served to remind people of their old values, and they are roused to protest against the government. This movie was filmed during a brief thaw in the cold war, but was withheld from circulation until 1990, as the thaw was not sustained long enough for it to be distributed.