Barnabas Kos, an untalented triangle-player in a state orchestra finds himself unfathomably promoted to conductor. Drunk with power, the once meek Kos now seeks to transform the ensemble to suit his own agenda and inflated vision...

Peter Solan's absurdist, darkly funny satire of a corrupt system that rewards mediocrity and breeds petty dictatorship, openly criticised the practices of communist Czechoslovakia at the time. Its wry exposure of hypocrisy, sycophancy and the corrupting influence of power remains as fresh and relevant today as it did in 1964.