Summary
František Čap's war film White Darkness was made to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising. The filmmakers processed a real episode from the course of this important historical event, but entirely in the spirit of the ideology of the time, emphasising the connection between Czech, Slovak and Soviet partisans or soldiers and highlighting the role of "the people" and the Red Army. Political ballast and pathos are balanced by good professional and impressive processing. At the same time, it is obvious that the filming had to take place in difficult conditions (it was carried out in studios in Prague and Bratislava).When retreating into the mountains, the partisan brigade has to leave several wounded in a blizzard in a dugout, hidden under the snow in an inaccessible place. They are left with a doctor, a nurse named Katka, two villagers from a nearby village who joined the partisans, and a girl named Rozka, who was the only one of her family to save herself from the Germans. The enemy soldiers are gradually withdrawing around the zemlyanka. The two villagers set out at night to get supplies. However, they are caught. The son of one of them falls off a cliff with the provisions. He is rescued by a Soviet soldier, Sasha Dugin, who escapes the Germans' clutches and who carries him up the rock to the zemlyanka. Here, hunger and fears for the future plague everyone. The doctor has to amputate the boy's crushed toes and then sets off alone to the distant Red Army for help. The Zemlyanka crew wage a final battle against the German superiority. He is saved by the arrival of Soviet soldiers. Sasha is shot the moment the fight is over. - The name White Darkness is a reference to a great snowstorm. - The film was shown at the III International Film Archive in Mariánské Lázně in 1948, where it won the travelling National Award for the best Czechoslovak film. At the same time, it played at the First Workers' Film Festival in Zlín, but was condemned by the workers' jury, who accused the film of pathos in its dialogue, lack of optimism and naturalism. František Čáp was disrespectful of the jury's claims, which cost him his future career in Czechoslovak cinema. That is why he later emigrated and laid the foundations of Slovenian cinema. - The film was released in February 2018 as part of the National Film Archive's Film Eight project, along with other titles associated with the "eight" anniversaries of modern Czechoslovak/Czech history.
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