Beer is considered the Czech national drink and a proud element of the national identity, which is also why it is an essential part of the content of the nation’s films. If we observe the formal aspects of the depiction of beer (its incorporation into the image, the lighting and choice of colour spectrum, the sound aspect related to beer), we can better understand the construction of the content conveyed, its affectivity and impact on the human senses, as well as the approaches of filmmakers to the construction of the image of national identity. There are also films from the 1990s and 2000s that construct a completely different image of Czech beer and national identity. Both are problematised, becoming a site of criticism and self-reflection for the Czech nation. Drinking becomes a necessity, an everyday activity, a metaphor for the impossibility of escape, the beginning of a catastrophe and the basis of a fluid, rootless identity. The pub is transformed from a meeting place into a space of emptiness, a space without memory and a morgue. The film we want to focus on, Mistři (Champions, 2004, dir. Marek Najbrt), takes place somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Sudetenland, 50 years after the expulsion of the former German inhabitants. The hockey mirage of Czech identity promised to solve all problems, but in fact it destroyed the possibility of understanding each other, understanding differences and accepting past crimes, guilt and abuse.