Summary
Gottwaldov Film Studio (now Zlín) became a creative sanctuary for František Vláčil during the early years of the “normalisation” era. But even there he was only able to shoot two medium-length films, starring child actors only. Nevertheless, forced to abandon artistic projects aimed at adult audiences, he stayed true to the values of his preceding work. Apart from the lyrical war drama Sirius (1974), based on a screenplay by Vladimír Körner (Údolí včel [Valley of the Bees, 1967], Adelheid [1969]), Vláčil created Pověst o stříbrné jedli (The Legend of the Silver Fir, 1973), a picture which takes its inspiration from a Beskid Mountains folk tale. As the tellers of the tale have it, anyone who performs a noble deed will see silver trees. For little Ondra, the legend comes alive when he performs chores for a gatherer of coniferous tree seeds. The boy helps him with his dangerous work. Fourteen-year-old Maroš Kramár stars in this simple, yet impressive feature shot by the director’s regular colleague, cinematographer František Uldrich.
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