Shadows of a Hot Summer (Stíny horkého léta)
| Program section: | Czechoslovak Noir |
|---|---|
| Directed by: | František Vláčil |
| Year: | 1977 |
| Country: | Czechoslovakia |
| Length: | 100 min. |
| Cast: | Juraj Kukura, Marta Vančurová, Gustáv Valach, Gustav Opočenský, Karel Chromík and others. |
Screening:
- 20. 8. 2026 | 17:30 - Nova Cinema Hall (castle - chateau) / EN subs /
Production: Filmové studio Barrandov
Script/Based on: Jiří Křižan
Director of Photography: Ivan Šlapeta
Score: Zdeněk Liška
František Vláčil, a prominent director of (not only) Czechoslovak poetic film, recipient of (not only) the KVIFF award for contribution to world cinema and the creator behind peaks of Czech cinema such as Marketa Lazarová, The Valley of the Bees (both 1967) and Snake Poison (1981), which was released on DVD during last year’s edition of the festival, comes to The Shadows of a Hot Summer with a plot that could compete with western thriller narratives. A tense atmosphere created by silence, hot weather and straightforward images of Beskydy countryside envelops a story about (post)war horrors and the dark sides of human nature. One of the most interesting aspects of the film is then only an eleven-year-old actor cast as the protagonist’s son Lukáš, Robert Lischke. Shadows remained his only acting credit; he switched to medicine and today he is one of the most prominent Czech surgeons. (bk)
