The satirical Smoke, made by Tomas Vorel (33 at the time) in the period immediately after the velvet revolution, is a self-named ‘musical of the totalitarian period’ and one of the first films to ridicule the communist system. Serious affairs are mixed with humorous, reality with the absurd.A young engineer goes to work in a factory after graduating. He gets down to work filled with enthusiasm, but within the socialist work process, that is not really appreciated. The workers do all kinds of things, except work. The engineer’s task is to reduce the amount of smoke expelled by the factory. In the archives he finds that there was already a plan for this made by an engineer who now works as a boiler-man in the factory. In the end the people rebel against the factory management, but one wonders how long that will last.
