After The Assistant, The Southern Mail is the second novel of Ladislav Ballek to be adapted to the movie screen. It is setin a fictitious border town in the south of Slovakia shortly after WWII, when the new state borders were just drawn on the maps. The recollections of a forty-year-old author about.his childhood take us backto the 1940s. We see the un-certain times, the conflicts, and the colourful characters of the multi-cultural region of southern Slovakia through the wondering eyes of a five-year-old boy.