Black Peter

Black Peter (original Czech title: Černý Petr, known also as Peter and Paula) is a 1964 film directed by Miloš Forman. It won the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno International Film Festival. Plot Petr, a Czech teenager, begins working as a trainee in theft prevention at a grocery store. He is criticized by his employer for being too conspicuous and then, when he suspects a man of stealing, is too nervous to confront the man so he just follows him through the streets and then returns home, where his father admonishes him because the shop manager had come looking for him. His father peppers him with questions about how he acted and why he did not do anything to stop the man. Petr likes Pavla, who is dating Mara. Petr and Pavla go for a swim together and then lie on the grass, where they are harassed by Čenda and Zdeněk, two apprentice bricklayers. Later, at a party, the drunken Čenda sees them together and repeatedly argues with Petr. He becomes upset when the master mason notices them fighting and blames Petr for making him look bad in front of the boss, then asks to borrow money. Petr lends him the money and Čenda buys more drinks to work up the courage to tell a girl in blue that he likes her, but the girl in blue has already begun to dance with someone else. Petr dances with Pavla but is unfamiliar with the popular moves. When he gets home, his mother interrogates him about all the details of the evening. The next day Petr delivers two prints of famous paintings to the shop but one falls and breaks the glass and frame. He takes the print, of a naked woman, with him on a date with Pavla. The next day at work Petr sees the man he followed before and notifies his boss, but his boss shakes the man's hand and takes him into the back room. Confused, Petr watches a woman steal several bags of sweets by hiding them in her bag but does not stop her. Petr once again faces a barrage of questions from his father about his behavior and why he failed to act. His father suspects that his inaction was in retaliation for something that had gone wrong at the shop but Petr refuses to explain.