1993 film by Jaromil Jireš

Karel Bursík (Lukás Vaculík), as a child called Kajda, recalls his childhood spent in Prague - Zizkov. His father (Vladimír Mensík), a shoe-maker, moved there his wife and three children hoping they would escape a country poverty. He soon threw his daughter Vera (Zlata Adamovská) out of home; he did not like her relationship with a married man. The competition of Bata factory was unsurpassable for a minor craftsman Bursík and his neighbours owed him for minor services. The desperate Bursík sent Kajda to sell his mother's dresses to get money for food. In a second-hand shop, Kajda met his first love.

After The Assistant, The Southern Mail is the second novel of Ladislav Ballek to be adapted to the movie screen. It is setin a fictitious border town in the south of Slovakia shortly after WWII, when the new state borders were just drawn on the maps. The recollections of a forty-year-old author about.his childhood take us backto the 1940s. We see the un-certain times, the conflicts, and the colourful characters of the multi-cultural region of southern Slovakia through the wondering eyes of a five-year-old boy.