The Encounter

A house in the Old Town neighbourhood of Prague is under reconstruction. It is the last day before the holidays. Only the clerk Olga Janečková with her agenda as supervisor and the boilerman Bouše in the cellar remained in the empty building. The attractive although somewhat aging woman is visited by her lover, Láďa Harna. The couple makes love and watches a TV series. Outside, a group of young people change into costumes and masks in a caravan and run up and down the street, yelling. Olga realizes that it has turned late and she may miss her last bus from Prague. Bouše moreover locked the main door and the couple goes to pick up the key from him. Thus, two former acquaintances from the military service meet. Bouše is not excited – he is married, he has bought his children toys and hurries home. It also turns out that Harna used to be an aggresive stager abusing his military rank. Olga takes a taxi to the bus station and Harna mercilessly drags Bouše to a nearby restaurant, forcing him to drink. He expresses his desire for the pretty waiter Lucinka in a brutal and coarse way. Olga indeed misses the last bus and returns. She finds Bouše with the key still in the pub. The young people wearing masks are drinking there, too, but have no money to pay. They knock down the publican behind the counter in an intentionally stirred fight, steal the daily takings – more than five thousand crowns – that fell out from his pocket, and dash out. But Harna catches up with them, takes the money and returns it to the headwaiter. Bouše returns to the boiler room to repair the somewhat ruined gifts. He is expected by the lovelorn Olga with open arms but Bouše sends her home. The drunk Harna searches for Olga in the offices but is attacked by disguised brutes in the semidarkness and is severely injured. The intruders, however, do not find the money they are after. A photograph of Harna’s mother lies next to the helpless and bleeding man. Bouše, unaware of anything, locks the building where no one will come for three days.