Defendant

In the first half of the 1960s, Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos made their socially most significant cinematic works. These included the WWII dramas Smrt si říká Engelchen (Death Is Called Engelchen) and Obchod na korze (The Shop on Main Street) as well as Obžalovaný, a psychological drama set in the period the film was made. The two directors recast the socialism-building dimension of the original novel by Lenka Hašková into a disturbing testimony on the reality of socialism – which in 1969 was irrevocably doomed to end under the censor’s lock and key. The protagonist of this story set in a courtroom is Kudrna, a hard-working honourable director of a hydroelectric power station. Under pressure from his superiors, he has made the greatest possible effort to put the new hydro plant into operation as soon as possible. His subordinates, however, have taken this as an opportunity to steal assets, resulting in one employee hanging himself. The innocent Kudrna’s trial reveals the abuse of law and how the ruling party and the justice system are interwoven... Shining in the title role of this excellently conceived film is the then not very well known Slovak actor Vlado Müller. Kudrna’s lawyer is performed by the emerging Jiří Menzel and the public prosecutor is played by an excelling Miroslav Macháček.