Noc nevěsty

One day of autumn 1950, during the forced collectivization, the farmers lead their cattle into the common stables of the new cooperative. The cooperative's chairman, Picin, publicly calls out the farmers' names. Only one among the farmers - the rich farmer Konvalinka - opposes the imposed violence in a horrific way, shooting all his cattle and himself committing suicide. The village witnesses the return of Konvalinka's daughter, nicknamed Miss [Slečna], a former nun whose cloister was closed by the new regime. She is running the remaining property alone, only with the help of the village fool Ambrož. Besides that, Miss is also feeding the cooperative's pigs. The farm-labourer Ambrož becomes the target of disgusting jokes suggesting a sexual relationship with the strict young woman employer. Picin is well aware that the members of the cooperative steal grain and not all of them have handed over their guns. Before Christmas, Miss decides to revive the village tradition and goes to the banned midnight mass on sledge. Clad in a nun's habit, she arrives at the church and blesses the people. The religious excitement of the crowd of villagers makes the priest serve the ceremony. Picin's common-law wife Filipa dies, and while the undertaker and his wife prepare her for the grave, Picin sets off to the church with a loaded gun. The priest, in front of the gathered people, scolds the former nun for pride and the young woman runs away to the fields, where in the freeze out to death. Picin, desperate of Filipa's death and blinded by hatred, shoots dead one of the farmers in front of the church. Miss dies in the frost and the members of militia arrive to the village from town. (Verleiher-Text)