Based on the acclaimed novel by Milan Kundera, Kaufman’s film explores the highly active love life of a charming Czech surgeon (Day-Lewis) against the backdrop of the Prague Spring of 1968 and the subsequent Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Real footage of the military crackdown and street violence is woven into the humorous, voyeuristic tale of a man who lives "light" (his request to "take off your clothes" becomes the film’s mantra) but is inevitably brought into contact with the seriousness of the times.