The Golden Eels

The father takes his family, three boys and his wife, for the holidays to Mr. Prošek, who lives and works by the Berounka river. The father tells stories about fish and fishing, as well as about Prošek, the king of fishermen. – The youngest son called Little Bum goes to pick up his father from the U Rozvědčíka pub in the evening. Here he meets the beautiful Mrs. Rozvědčíková. – Mom is angry with the father in the morning. As his father has told him, Little Bum steals a washing line for the baits. The father takes the boy fishing when it stops raining in the evening. He is convinced that they will catch the golden eels. He sends the child with a rope right into the stream of the river and when he wants to pull his son out, he barely makes it. – Little Bum is not allowed to go fishing with others the next day. Mr. Prošek gives him a fishing rod and he catches and kills his first fish. Prošek hangs the fish skin on the door and the boy is very proud of himself. – Little Bum brings to Mrs. Rozvědčíková a trout, which he stabbed with a knife in a pond under the rock. – The boys and their mother find a lot of mushrooms in the forest. However, the mother is sad: according to the superstition, this means that a war is coming. She has a vision where she sees the corpses of her sons in the river. – The war has started. The family moved from Prague to their grandmother's country house. Mr. Prošek brings some food supplies for the father and the older boys who are being deported to the concentration camp. – Little Bum goes to Prošek and catches three eels. Mr. Janouch smokes them for him. But the smoked eels are too salty for the father, so his disappointed son buries them with their fish brothers. In the morning, he says goodbye to his father. – Little Bum takes his father's fishing rod, a hat and a jacket from the closet and goes poaching to the pond near the castle where the German soldiers are stationed. With some help from the innkeeper Oplt, he escapes from an angry water bailiff. Mom is angry with him, but the boy does not listen to her and goes to the pond again. This time the water bailiff catches him, but instead of telling him off, he gives him some advice on how to poach better. – Little Bum starts to sell fish, but only until the Germans ceremoniously drain the pond. – After the massacre in the nearby Lidice, the mother sends her son to Prošek. – Little Bum catches three trouts under the rock, where the Germans later kill fish with a hand grenade. – The boy gives the fish he caught to Mrs. Rozvědčíková. He witnesses how the resistance fighter Rozvědčík tries to escape during the interrogation but fails. A Nazi commissioner also takes his wife away. Mr. Prošek saves Little Bum from the Nazis at the last moment. – According to Mr. Prošek, they will catch a lot of eels in the evening. When they finally go fishing, Little Bum cannot keep up when he puts all the eels in the buckets. In the morning, he remembers his father's words about the golden eels and releases the eels back into the river.