I feel the talent of the director. With no budget, no script, no location to shoot Foreman was able to put a great satire on Czechoslovakia in the 60s. The episodes with the selection of girls and the fire are incomparable. The director showed well the brutality and disregard for the consent of the average person. The film has a very strong feminist message. Many modern attempts to portray something on this topic before the “Firemen’s Ball” are still developing.
There is nothing special about satire. Now every year some kind of satire is removed, and the world experiences it stoically. It's bad when society starts feeding sacred cows. Then satire turns into sedition. And if civil officials do not understand what is included in the list of sacred cows and what is not, satire is more dangerous than fire. The Firefighters' Ball was therefore perceived as a political manifesto, although Foreman himself did not show any interest in political cinema in the years that followed. And “Ball” was filmed to illustrate the thesis “we wanted the best” long before one aphorist. Whatever it was, thanks to the film, Foreman only got better, and he, having changed his place of residence, inscribed his name in world cinema in large letters.
However, through time, the film looks hard. Perhaps lacking is the immersion in everyday reality that was natural to viewers of that day. As a result, some scenes look simply masterpiece, and others want to quickly miss.