Easter Leave

Jiří Hanibal, 1971

Film at Filmový přehled

Summary

In 1971, writer-director Jiří Hanibal filmed this attempt at bringing to life the emotional problems of a group of young Czechs living in the countryside. Honza returns home from the army for three days during the Easter break to be with his parents. But he finds himself caught up in a love triangle, involving the fickle girl Marta and the dreamy student Ivan. Marta tries to maintain the attentions of Honza, while at the same time continuing her dalliance with Ivan. The wily Marta views Ivan as being too naive, but still gets a kick out of his attempts to woo her... This relationship drama eschews much of the subtlety, authenticity and complexity found in many similar relationship dramas of the 1960s. Only director Jiří Hanibal’s casting of the debuting actors Vanda Švarcová (Marta), Vítězslav Jandák (Ivan) and the little-known Petr Skarke (Honza) evokes anything of the spirit of the Czechoslovak New Wave, a movement that had been extinguished by the time of this film’s release.
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Film data

About a film

Production year 1971
Countries Czechoslovakia
Categories film
Genres narrative
Form feature
Duration 78 min
Director Jiří Hanibal
Cast Vanda Švarcová, Petr Skarke, Vítězslav Jandák, Marie Marešová
Director of photography Josef Vaniš
Screenplay Jiří Hanibal
Editor Zdeněk Stehlík
Production designer Jiří Hlupý, Marta Kaplerová
Music Luboš Fišer
Sound designer Jaromír Svoboda