The story of Pomocnik – The Assistant takes place in a small township of Palánk in southern Slovakia, recovering after the trauma of WWII.  The residents of Palánk do not dwell on the past, they fix their attention to the future. Life bursts out in this small town with all its might, tastes, colours and passion. The need to compensate themselves for anything they were deprived of by the war becomes the strongest drive for its inhabitants. They start, in the first place, to fulfill their basic needs of flesh: need for food and lovemaking. Hunt after food, pleasures and riches becomes the purpose of everyday existence. In the post-war Palánk “to be“ means “to have“.

To this atmosphere arrives a butcher from northern Slovakia, Štefan Riečan, with his wife and daughter, to start his life anew. At the beginning, Palánk looks like a promised land to him, full of fruits, tastes and smells. But soon the honest, humble man with firm moral principles finds out it is not the right place for him….