Studio 2000's popular International line has come up with another winner, this one entitled The Back Room. It is a beautifully filmed and exquisitely performed loop film that tells the simple tale of a young shopkeeper (Vilem Cage) in Prague who discovers that he can make a lot more money renting out the storage room in the back of his shop for afternoon assignations than he ever could by merely selling groceries.

The film begins with a straight couple passing through the blue curtain that hides this little den of iniquity from the front of the shop, but before the sheets back there have cooled, a gay couple (who have just cruised each other on the street) enter the shop. They pay for a half-hour in the room and waste no time charging into action. Both are handsome specimens blessed with an easy-going masculinity, boyish faces, lithe physiques and thick, helmet-headed cocks draped with foreskin.

The more aggressive of the pair, Matus Hornay, is the find of the film, a voracious sex pig masquerading as a choir boy. He immediately dives to give head to his partner (the blond-streaked Martin Bolek), and both his enthusiasm and his skills are first-rate. Moments later, when he whips out his own impressive equipment and slides back his foreskin for a little reciprocity, the scene simply soars. In time, he finds his way into Bolek's inviting ass and fucks him in three positions, passionately kissing throughout the sizzling session. The scene ends with a hailstorm of spooge, and though both youths are terrific performers, it is Hornay who drives the scene and remains the focus of attention.

The second sequence features shopkeeper Cage, who closes down the shop for a lunch break and his own matinee. He heads for a bar-restaurant and (after being groped on a public bus, in a nice bit of guerilla filmmaking) gets it on with one of the bartenders. A tall, lean brunet, Cage, too, is a consummate top man, who first sprawls on a couch to be serviced by the beefy bartender (Ondra Seky, who bears a striking resemblance to Dylan Reece). It is not long, however, before Cage proves himself to be much more than a passive piece of trade. He attacks Seky's thick, veined cock like dog with a bone before he invades his partner's meaty ass. Both deliver copious money shots.

The third episode features two of Cage's friends (Vasil Dudov and Pavel Novotny, aka Jan Dvorak) who slip away to a deserted tool shed for their set-to. Novotny has the most awesome physique and the most magnificent endowment of the entire film, and once again he proves why he is one of the few superstars to emerge from Eastern Europe. Orally, he gives and takes with equal skill - he has developed into a talented cocksucker, and here he charges through a bravura bout of rimming unlike any he has performed onscreen thus far, his tongue vibrating in overdrive. But the high point of the scene is his multipositioned plowing of Dudov, who easily (and noisily) takes every thrust. And Dudov remains rockhard throughout, his hefty erection flapping in the air as he bounces up and down on Novotny's considerable shaft. The moan-filled action ends with Dudov coated in cum and brings another virtually flawless scene to its conclusion.

After an all-too-brief (and seemingly aborted) sequence in which a blond street urchin (Felix Slovacek) slips under the counter to service Cage while he is dealing with the people in his shop, the film sails into its finale. Cage finds a phone number left by that straight guy who opened the film and rings him up. In a whisk, the big, butch blond (Miro Lauko) has arrived, and he and Cage retire to the back room for some heated kissing before Lauko kneels to service him. Eventually, they are joined by a deliveryman (the dark and sultry Slavo Kopecky), who is every bit as talented an oralist as the others, and the subsequent three-way finds them bouncing effortlessly from one position to another as they race to a perfectly timed trio of orgasms, all captured in the same shot. Cage fucks both the others, and one of the most arousing sights is watching the unlikely Lauko bottoming with surprising enthusiasm.

Shot in the Czech Republic, this little gem from producer/director Jan Novak proves once again that he has quickly become a major player in the Eastern European sweepstakes. His works now stand alongside those of William Higgins, George Duroy, Kristen Bjorn and Harve Handsome as top-of-the-line treasures, and The Back Room is nearly as arousing as his last effort, the sublime Winning Ways.

- Jerry Douglas