TOURISM officials in Prague aren’t likely to be fond of “Up and Down,” a Czech social comedy that portrays the beautiful city as filled with rip-off artists and soccer louts.

Yes, there are perfectly respectable people in the film’s version of Prague, but they do daily battle with the bad guys.

“Up and Down,” directed and co-written by Jan Hrebejk, focuses on two families of different classes.

At the low end, a security guard’s wife desperate to have a child (she can’t conceive and her husband’s criminal past prevents them from adopting) buys a child left behind in a truck used to smuggle immigrants into the Czech Republic.

Worlds away, an elderly professor, facing serious surgery, arranges a reunion dinner with the bitter wife he never divorced; their estranged son, now living in Australia; the old man’s much-younger mistress; and their teenage daughter, a dancer.

Needless to say, dinner does not go well.

Using a talented ensemble cast, Hrebejk expertly interweaves the stories and characters.

The result is an absorbing look at a country still struggling to adjust more than a decade after the fall of communism.

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UP AND DOWN

[] (Three stars)

In Czech, with English subtitles. Running time: 108 minutes. Rated R (sexuality, language, brief violence). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Quad.