Peter Solan’s satire clearly shows that when combined with power, dilettantism is likely to destroy all creative endeavour. With this picture he joined filmmakers who, in the 1960s, dared to  criticise the misguided practices that were a normal way of life in socialist Czechoslovakia. As in the short story by Peter Karvaš that inspired it, the film finds its “model collective” in the orchestra, whose rehearsals become an embarrassing farce thanks to its least important member – Barnabáš Kos, triangle player. After bureaucratic manoeuvring propels him to the post of ensemble director, the exploited eager beaver now enjoys status as the Great Reorganiser, championing the triangle as the principal instrument. While the film’s narrative style is largely still traditional, the scenes of absurdity align with the poetics of the New Wave.