Directed by Otakar Vávra • 1970 • Czechoslovakia
Starring Vladimír Šmeral, Elo Romančík, Josef Kemr

Cowritten by Ester Krumbachová and director Otakar Vávra, this unsettling parable uses seventeenth-century religious hysteria as a potent allegory for the repressive political climate of Soviet-occupied Czechoslovakia. In the 1670s in Moravia, the ruthless inquisitor Boblig von Edelstadt (a real historical figure, played by Vladimír Šmeral) stages a series of sensational witch trials, using persecution, torture, and terror to force women to confess to devil worship. When a local priest (Elo Romančík) speaks out against von Edelstadt, he finds himself caught up in the rapidly escalating frenzy.