Michal Novák

On Christmas Eve 1944, the devout Kubis family gathers under one roof despite divided loyalties: their youngest is a partisan, the eldest a guard, the daughter an Aryanization beneficiary, they sit with a Nazi guest, and the prospective bride is a communist. As the war’s end draws near and the front collapses, conflicting convictions and survival instincts force the family to confront moral compromises and the inevitability of sacrifice. What will each confess at midnight mass when duty to family, faith, and conscience collide?

For 14-year-old Adam, the world of his poor Romany village has only two joys: boxing and Julka, a friend his same age. But after the violent death of his father, the boy experiences life’s harsher side: his mother remarries and his stepfather demands obedience without seeking to deserve Adam’s respect. Gradually everything the boy was attached to starts to fall apart around him, and if his dead father hadn’t visited him he wouldn’t even know which path to take. The inexperience of youth, loneliness, and impulsiveness prevent him from using reason and cool consideration to face the obstacles in his way, and he even sometimes provokes those who stand by him. And thus he finds himself in a situation for which there is only one solution.