Nazi imprisonment survivor Otto opens an upscale hair salon in the center of Prague where his wife and her sisters work. As his business gets underway, a looming darkness builds with the communists’ rise to power. The state expropriates Otto’s salon, putting a pompous young lad in charge. Soon it becomes apparent that Otto must disappear or risk losing his life. Will he ever find “home” again? Deserter is a tragicomic drama of harshly tested love between husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children. The film is part of director Hřebejk’s Garden Store trilogy, following three families: an air radio operator, a hair salon owner, and a garden store proprietor against the backdrop of the most dramatic periods of the last century.
Organized by Lucerna Film, Czech Centres, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Inc.
