Summary
After the Oscar-winning Obchod na korze (The Shop on Main Street, 1965), directors Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos made only one more film together, a poetic romance set in the Slovak-Hungarian borderlands in the 1920s. Touha zvaná Anada (Desire Named Anada, 1971) was a Czech-American coproduction that presaged Ján Kadár’s emigration to the USA. The story, inspired by a novella by the Hungarian writer Imre Gyöngyössy, takes place in an attractive and intimate setting on the banks of the River Danube. One day, the river washes up a half-drowned girl who is taken into the care of the fisherman Jánoš Gabay and his spouse Zuzka. Soon Jánoš begins to fall in love with the mysterious stranger… An enigmatic drama of cause and effect, the film combines a poetic narrative about a love triangle with a morality tale about passion and responsibility. Yugoslavians Rade Markovič (Jánoš) and Milena Dravić (Zuzka) played the leading pair alongside American actress Paula Pritchett as Anada.
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