Lingering resentment over the 1938 conference at which Britain and France “gave” Czechoslovakia to Hitler is the context in which this surprisingly unpredictable farce plays out.

When a struggling journalist accidentally snags the ancient parrot that witnessed French PM Daladier’s sellout—and can reproduce verbatim quotes from the event—he creates a firestorm in Prague. Then, just when this Czecho-centric concept wears thin, writer-director Petr Zelenka (Wrong Side Up) pulls a switcheroo on the premise of the movie—and on the idea of national betrayal.