Three stories examine the search for love in a society ruled by schedules and teased along to a jazz beat. Reminiscent of the work of Pierre Étaix in France during the same period, this near wordless sketch retreats from the intensity of Němec’s previous two features. Allegorizing sexual frustration under an authoritarian regime, he and Krumbachová emphasize a Magritte-like surrealism within a documentary style, or what Němec called his “dream realism.” Glimpses of city life underscore loneliness and lack of connection: grates slam down, manholes are covered, a too-big hose sprays water. With a cameo appearance by the two Maries from Chytilová’s Daisies, Martyrs of Love seems on the brink of breaking into true anarchy, but something holds it back. Figures walk alone through empty parks as party guests sleep off revels they may have only dreamed.