What to look forward to in the Czechoslovak Noir section?

This edition’s Czechoslovak noir program section offers several true delicacies with larger emphasis on the psychology of characters and relationships. You can especially look forward to Karel Kachyňa’s film Christmas with Elizabeth (1968), DVD of which will be launched during the festival. The film presents a sensitively depicted relationship of two incompatible people, set against an almost naturalistic backdrop of (not only) Czechoslovak countryside. We will then visit a starkly different environment in a film few years older than Christmas, Blizzard (1962), boasting a star-studded cast including for example Vladimír Menšík and Slávka Budínová. Its setting in winter Krkonoše will present a welcome distraction from the no doubt intense August temperatures. On the contrary, Shadows of a Hot Summer by František Vláčil (1977) will be in line with them. The film presents one of the most interesting pieces not only in the career of the director but also the titular actor Juraj Kukura. This taciturn, psychologically tense probe into post-war Beskydy countryside unceremoniously confronts the viewer with the question “what would you do in this situation?”. This and more will be offered by this year’s local noir selection. The psychological line will be continued in the almost Rashomon-like TV film Seven Witnesses (1967), and the dark crooked alleys and Hana Vítová in Sign of the Anchor (1947) will bring a tinge of the supernatural into the section. This year’s selection of local noir is truly colorful; don’t miss it! (bk)