Director Bernard Safarik based this straightforward story on his own experiences, and on Czech writer Jaroslav Vejvoda's stories about the difficulties of Eastern European refugees -- both in obtaining a visa and later adjusting to life in a new country with a different socio-economic system. The film focuses on a Czech artist bent on leaving Prague for Switzerland, showing that his visions of a new life and how to reach it are routinely shattered by the everyday reality of finding asylum. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi