The director Ivan Balaďa was not allowed to finish this gloomy, black-and-white parable, inspired by Chekhov's short story Pavilion No. 6 - only after the fall of communism, more than twenty years later, did the film hit the cinema screens, unfortunately to negligible acclaim. In fact, it is only now that we can fully enjoy the story of an aging, increasingly exhausted mental institution doctor who is inexorably sinking to the level of his patients.