The Czech Republic is full of similar stories. They vanish into the air from underneath the lids in many decent households, we trip over them as if they were turfs on neglected fields on the borderline, they get washed away by the rain from decaying station buildings. Filmmakers adore this. For the rest of us, it's a perfect opportunity to experience a bit of an adventure. Although Alois Nebel is animated frame by frame - by rotoscoping - it isn't hard to recognize individual settings.

The Jeseníky Mountains offer a piece of nature that is varied and rich in surprises of any kind, so another "confused train guy" doesn't raise much attention here. Black-marketeering with oil or displacements of innocent girls are also part of our history. In all previous totalitarian regimes, you could always find a certain character like Wachek, young or old. However, the Jeseníky Mountains are definitely worth a visit. Who knows, you might even run into Hollywood actor Karel Roden, wandering in the woods.

The pathways from the wild pine groves will lead you to a small village named Malá Morávka. In the film, its fictive name was Whitebrook (Bílý Potok), with fictive trains passing through it. This is where it all started, the fog and the stories. Rails and trains are a metaphore for life, and in these mountains, everything seems rather fated.

If you wish to find out where it all ended, set aside a few hours for the journey, a few changes of trains and hills, and you'll end up in the main train station in Prague. Or the other way round. "The trains ride in both directions", that's what Alois Nebel would say before lying down on his bench again.