Aspiring to be a millionaire hotelier in 1930s Czechoslovakia, opportunistic Jan (Barnev) enters the hospitality business as a waiter, hoping to work himself into the good graces of the rich and well-connected, while sleeping with every chambermaid and prostitute in sight. Eventually, he shacks up with leggy Aryan Liza (Jentsch), a fervent Nazi whose fateful trip to the Russian front when war breaks out will finally help Jan realize his dream of fortune, but not quite in the way he expected ...

The justly celebrated Czech New Wave pioneer (“Closely Watched Trains”) Jiri Menzel brings his characteristic mix of dark humor and absurdist fantasy to this buoyant story of social climbing in WWII-era Eastern Europe. Zesty, whimsical, and tragically serious despite its self-deprecating veneer, “England” leaves a lasting impression, thanks in large part to Barnev's straight-faced, Chaplinesque performance.