Starring Radovan Lukavský, Jirí Vala, Jirina Svorcová

Director: Karel Kachyna
Print: Black and White
Runtime: 90 Minutes
Genre: Drama
Language: Czech
Subtitle: English

The film takes place in 1948. The principal protagonists are Sergeant Karel Zeman and Master Sergeant Vaclav Kot. The film has incorrectly been described as being about border guards. Border patrols were not activated in Czechoslovakia until 1951. Rather, Kot heads a department of border police, which has the task of combating smugglers, who are crossing from Bavaria into Czechoslovakia (and for ideological reasons, are called "agents" in the film) to bring in contraband. Early on, it's obvious that the smugglers are being led into the Sumava region by a local, who knows the terrain very well. Otherwise, it would be impossible for the intruders to navigate out of the swamps (historically speaking, these smugglers from both the Bavarian and Czech sides of the border were frequently expelled Sudeten Germans, who had lived in the region prior to the end of the Second World War). For this reason, the mysterious local leading the smugglers is referred to as "the King of Sumava". Sergeant Zeman falls in love with Marie, a shopkeeper, whose husband fled to Bavaria years before after hitting a local boy with his car and killing him. In Bavaria, he joins a band of smugglers and is involved in a shootout on the border, killing one of the policemen. (Also known as Smugglers of Death).