PETR (Filip Tomsa): high school student, athlete
Petr is a talented athlete and member of the Red Star hockey team, a Communist-youth organization. Petr is conflicted about being a Red Star athlete: he loves the competition and attention but he yearns for the freedom to think freely and to travel the world, ideals his father have instilled in him.

ONDREJ (Pavel Richta): high school student, artist
Ondrej is a Slovak artist who doesn't speak much, preferring to communicate with his art and through pantomime, like a latter day version of Harpo Marx. Ondrej creates a fantasy world of animated films, drawings and paintings that allow his imagination to roam freely.

JIRI (Filip Cil): high school student, music trader
Jiri is a music loving entrepreneur who has an illegal business dubbing officially banned music for black-market distribution. He constantly competes with Petr over athletics, politics and particularly over Martina. The two spur each other on, leading to increasingly serious confrontations with the authorities.

MARTINA (Anita Krausova): high school student, artist
Martina, a Slovak painter with a sharp wit, becomes the center of attention for the three boys. She likes Jiri but is attracted to Petr's strength. She is wary of becoming involved with Petr because of his desire to escape from the country.

OTTO (Jiri Jelenik): college school student, music trader
Otto is a secret collaborator whose mission is to stir up the dissidents against the government. He leads the student demonstration on November 17th, 1989 into a police trap, with disastrous results for all concerned.

PAVEL (David Novotny): Petr's father, construction worker
Pavel is studying architecture in Italy in 1968 when the Russians crush the 'Prague Spring'. Pavel can stay in Italy as an exile, but his love for a woman brings him back to Prague. Upon his return to Czechoslovakia his passport is seized, his studies are ended and he winds up as a bricklayer. His new wife soon leaves him and their young son, Petr.

JAN (Igor Bares): Petr's uncle, Communist member of the sTb
Jan encourages Petr to join the Communist Youth Sports organizations to counterbalance Pavel's anti-communist stance. As a result, Petr is caught in an ongoing battle between the two brothers.

KAPITAN BARTA (Lobos Dojcan)
Barta leads the police effort against the dissidents. Along with Miroslav, he follows Petr, Jiri and Ondrej throughtout the film. Under orders from Jan, Barta directs the attack of the riot police on the demonstrators in Narodni Trida on November 17th.

POLICE PHOTOGRAPHER MIROSLAV (Stano Stehlik)
Miroslav follows Petr, Jiri and Ondrej throughout the film, acting as the 'eyes and ears' of the StB. His images bring the conflict between Petr, Jiri and Martina to a head.