The film tells the story of a boy, Tonda, and his grandfather, a Russian nobleman, an amateur painter, a man of refinement, and above all a man with a colourful and dramatic life story, played by the excellent Miroslav Krobot. Together, the pair defy the difficult times of 1968.
Tonda is a small, bespectacled boy, ill with bronchial pneumonia. So when his parents and his older brother Jirka take a trip to Paris in the summer of 1968, he has bad luck. He has to stay in the fresh air at a cottage in the Jizera Mountains under the supervision of his grandfather. He is a peculiar descendant of Russian nobility, a man of great refinement who has always had to face great history in his life. However, their holiday cohabitation, which Tonda certainly did not want, is changed by the night of 21 August. The grandfather knows very well what the Russian occupation means, he has a lot to do to calm his frightened grandson. He tries to strengthen him and, despite the turbulent times, to put something good into him, to enrich his soul. He teaches him French, fine dining and, above all, not to give up.
The End of the World is a powerful story from a difficult time, a narrative full of contrasts, both in terms of the relationship between what Grandpa's rich life entails and Tondo's childhood world, full of naivety but also of honesty and love. We follow a poetic story seen through the eyes of a child, with subtle humour and the dramatic situations of an unexpected military occupation.
