Directed by František Vláčil • 1960 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Kateřina Irmanovová, Karel Smyczek, Anna Pitašová
The first feature by revered director František Vláčil (MARKETA LAZAROVÁ) is a poetic, deeply humanist parable following the intersecting fates of a carrier pigeon, a wheelchair-bound boy (Karel Smyczek) in Prague who shoots the bird down and then nurses him back to health with the help of an artist (Václav Irmanov), and the faraway German girl who misses her lost pigeon. Told through gorgeous, black-and-white images, this key precursor to the Czechoslovak New Wave touches on themes of empathy and freedom with the timelessness of a fable.
Up Next in Czechoslovak New Wave
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The Devil’s Trap
Directed by František Vláčil • 1962 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Vítězslav Vejražka, Miroslav Macháček, Čestmír ŘandaThe first in a trilogy of historical epics by director František Vláčil (followed by the renowned MARKETA LAZAROVÁ and THE VALLEY OF THE BEES), THE DEVIL’S TRAP unfolds in sixteenth...
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The Valley of the Bees
Directed by František Vláčil • 1968 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Petr Čepek, Jan Kačer, Věra GalatíkováThe final installment in František Vláčil’s trilogy of historical epics (directly following his most widely heralded work, MARKETA LAZAROVÁ) follows a young man (Petr Čepek) in thirteenth-century...
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Adelheid
Directed by František Vláčil • 1970 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Petr Čepek, Emma Černá, Jan VostrčilOne of director František Vláčil’s most renowned works, this searing romantic tragedy considers questions of national trauma through a powerful human love story. In the aftermath of World War II, f...
