Sirius

Village teenager František does not pay much attention to the hardships that his parents had to endure during the Nazi occupation. Rather, the boy develops a strong friendship with his Alsatian dog Sirius. But František’s life is also set to be disrupted by violence – from the very creatures he considers to be man’s best friend. Gestapo officers are using trained dogs to capture the boy’s escaped father. When Sirius is about to be also seized by the Gestapo officers, František embarks on a futile battle for his best friend’s life. Running at just 50 minutes, this film is a second Gottwaldov Studios (today Zlín) shorter feature from director František Vláčil, following his previous 54-minute Pověst o stříbrné jedli (The Legend of the Silver Fir, 1973). The “normalisation” climate caused the director to give up on any notion of making artistically worthwhile films for mature audiences. Nonetheless, Vláčil was able to stay true to the values espoused in his previous works. Michal Vavruša stars in this harshly poetic picture.