Dead Beetle… sketches a tragi-comic picture of life for young people in Prague today. Martin (23) thinks he can become a great actor, but for the present he is just a waiter, like so many aspiring actors all over the world. With his girlfriend Klara he works in a small tearoom, but because he doesn’t think his work is creative enough, he is often away attending the umpteenth audition. When his girlfriend, who had kept his absence from the restaurant secret from the boss for a long time, starts to have an affair with the same boss, Martin is sacked. In a bar, he misbehaves and gets into a fight. When he recovers, he finds himself in a psychiatric clinic where he has been admitted for observation. Martin thinks this is ridiculous, but a nice therapist manages to persuade him not to run away, because that would only get him in trouble with the police. In the clinic, Martin soon finds his feet. He meets his fellow patients, among them the pretty Markéta, a girl who is loved by everyone for her naïve innocence. Martin falls in love with her too and they flee the clinic together. But Markéta doesn’t seem very well adapted to life in the outside world and nor is Martin well suited to the sensitive Markéta.
