Payment in Kind (1980)

Plot Summary

In an unusual, apolitical approach, director Jaromil Jires has fashioned a standard drama that features an older lawyer with failing health who goes to practice in the countryside. His series of odd court cases reveals more about the human condition than about law. In one of these litigations a wayward nephew has cheated his elderly aunt out of her savings. In court, the nephew insists the money was a gift, but his aunt explains she only gave him the money as a loan. Although the lawyer technically wins the case, everything of value seems lost in the meantime. His services are paid for in rabbits because the aunt has no currency, and in the end, the nephew cons his aunt into parting with her savings anyway. Other cases expose similar types of petty corruption.

Full Cast & Characters

Miloš Kopecký

JUDr. Lukášek

Marie Brožová

babička Márová

Jaroslav Satoranský

Joun

Martin Růžek

soudce JUDr. Petřík

Zlata Adamovská

sekretářka Zuzana

Alena Vránová

Lukášková

Pavel Zedníček

Pastyřík

Karel Augusta

Vrána

Soběslav Sejk

soudce JUDr. Špaček

Miroslav Plzák

MUDr. Petr Drasnar

Vlastimil Hašek

Chmelař

Jana Andresíková

Chmelařová

Director & Crew

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