JirÍ Menzel’s story of a chirpy old convict who reflects back on his life is a brilliant piece of whimsy. I Served the King of England is a satirical history of Czechoslovakian greed from the 1930s to the present day. It’s a history of a hotdog vendor who becomes a hotel proprietor and multimillionaire.

The years are beautifully unravelled as he peers through pint glasses and into patchy mirrors. Ivan Barnev is a pint-sized marvel as the cheeky young hero who learns money-pinching tricks as a waiter at fabulously debauched upmarket hotels. The picaresque perk, however, is in the end too playful. The convict’s nostalgic couplings with unbelievably willing girls is too cute. The sting of the German clampdown on these frothy wartime memories doesn’t prick, let alone penetrate.

15, 120mins

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