An extraordinary dark fantasy that is at once allegory and hyperrealism-very much like the era it depicts, the rise of Nazism. Based on a novella by Ladislav Fuks, it tells of a conscientious Prague crematorium employee, Mr. Kopfrking (Rudolf Hrusinsky), who becomes so taken with the importance of his work-he believes that by burning their bodies he is liberating the souls of the departed-he begins selectively murdering new victims. Beginning with his own wife he plans to eliminate the unfit. Mr. Kopfrking's mystical mission is in accord with current Nazi thinking and he is an easy convert; when Hitler's army moves in, he is chosen to manage bigger and better furnaces. This eerie political horror film recalls the German Expressionist works of Murnau and Lang, which were so prescient in evoking fascist delusions of grandeur. Like them, Juraj Herz relies on a meticulously observed reality to provide its own grotesque impact.