Already on edge in the wake of an ongoing communist purge, a government official, Ludvik (Radoslav Brzobohatý), and his soused wife, Anna (Jiřina Bohdalová), return home from a political soiree to discover that their keys are missing, their electricity has been cut, and The Ear—the state surveillance system—may be listening in on their every word. So begins a long night’s journey into dread as the two of them bicker, booze, and crawl the walls with fear: could Ludvik be the next party member to disappear? Something like Cassavetes’ Faces meets The Conversation, The Ear viscerally evokes the tension and all-pervasive paranoia of life under a totalitarian regime, and features Krumbachová’s foray into set design.