Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1963, this forgotten gem is one of the most inventive, magical – and subversive – family-friendly films made under a communist regime!

A circus arrives in a small town square (the stunning UNESCO World Heritage Centre of Telč). Amongst the visitors is a beautiful, enigmatic woman (Emília Vášáryová) bearing a cat wearing sunglasses. When the glasses come off, in a feline inversion of John Carpenter’s later cult classic They Live (1988), the villagers change colour, showing one and all their true natures and threatening the status quo…

Jaroslav Kučera’s cinematography anticipates some of his extraordinary work to come in Věra Chytilová’s Daisies (1966), while legendary figures like Jan Werich and Jiří Brdečka abound in front of, and behind, the camera.