Compared to his cautious criticisms of the political system in Black Peter, in The Firemen's Ball, made three years later, Forman is far less discreet. And while the film appears to depict a rather woeful fireman's ball, the grotesqueness of it all transforms the movie into a killing satire. Mind you, it is undoubtedly easier to be courageous when the film had the backing of Carlo Ponti, the Italian co-producer. But let us not be unjust! At that time in Czechoslovakia, other winds were blowing. The film premiered in December 1967. In January 1968 Alexander Dubček found himself the head of the Communist Party, and began to instigate a few reforms, which were subsequently brought to an end with rows of fraternal tanks. The film was banned. It was impossible to lock the film away in a vault however, and as a Czechoslovakian and Italian co-production it managed to live on. In 1969 it was even nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
In Hungary, people had to wait until 1988 for its premiere, even though The Fireman's Ball is hardly a manifesto of rebellion. It is merely a depiction of a harmless ball, whose organisers, despite the symbolic gestures of the firefighters and their grandstanding hypocrisy, are unable to cover up the stealing, the confusion and the total failure of the whole charade. It is an incredibly simple and hilarious story, with the most interesting characters are played by amateurs, something which by this point was de rigeur in Czechoslovak New Wave cinema. You will laugh out loud when the painfully embarrassing confusion of the ball becomes an almost burlesque-like scenario. The raffle and the beauty contest are simply unforgettable. Yet your heartstrings will be pulled just a little as you observe the efforts of the firefighters. God forbid that something should catch fire!

Presented by: Müpa Budapest