Distant Journey

Alfréd Radok, 1948

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Thirty five years had passed before theatre director Alfréd Radok added stand-alone film directing to his career. The expressive approach to this story about the World War II fate of the Jewish Kaufmann family is enriched by innovative methods combining acted as well as documentary scenes. The chief protagonist is a doctor, Hana (Blanka Waleská), who due to her origins is dismissed by her clinic after the Nazis seize power. As a Jew living in a mixed marriage with her colleague Bureš (Otomar Krejča), she does for a time escape deportation to the Terezín ghetto. But in the end, even the doctor has to face the same fate as her family... In 1949, this ground-breaking film – both notable for its form and the topics it addressed – received a very cool reception from the approval bureaus. It was for a short time played in cinemas outside of Prague, but eventually it was excluded from distribution altogether. In the end, Radok had to content himself with directing titles that were thematically clearly “innocent”.
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About a film

film_production_year 1948
film_countries Czechoslovakia
film_genres drama
film_form feature
film_duration 104 min
film_director Alfréd Radok
film_cast Blanka Waleská, Otomar Krejča, Viktor Očásek, Zdeňka Baldová, Eduard Kohout
film_director_of_photography Josef Střecha, Jaromír Holpuch
film_screenplay Mojmír Drvota, Erik Kolár, Alfréd Radok
film_film_editor Jiřina Lukešová
film_production_designer Jan Pacák
film_art_director František Tröster
film_music_composed_by Jiří Sternwald
film_sound_designer Josef Vlček