New Menzel film goes on general release

I Served the King of England, the new film by Czech director Jiri Menzel, goes on general release in the Czech Republic on Thursday. The film, based on the novel of the same name by Bohumil Hrabal, tells the story of a Czech waiter from the inter-war period, through World War II up until the 1960s. Menzel, who has made several adaptations of works by Hrabal, fought a ten-year-legal battle for the film rights. His most famous Hrabal movie is Closely Observed Trains which won an Oscar in 1967.