A major figure in the Czech New Wave of the 1960s--his films, Diamonds of the Night, A Report on the Party and the Guests, and Martyrs of Love, all key works--Jan Nemec's was a brilliant career cut short in his native country by the events of 1968. He has been working in exile, in Europe and the U.S., since 1974. Jan Nemec is currently teaching in the Group Major in Film at UC Berkeley. A Loaf of Bread (Sousto) Nemec belongs to the metaphorical filmmakers of the Czech New Wave; his first film already set him apart from the realistic trend. It specifically evokes Diamonds of the Night in depicting the excrutiating psychological tension of several emaciated youths waiting for their Nazi guards to turn their backs so that they might grab bread from a nearby wagon.