Summary
The film is based on a novel written by 1950s Czechoslovak president Antonín Zápotocký. Rozbřesk (Daybreak), penned in 1960, was brought to the big screen in 1976. The melodrama charts the rise of the organised workers’ movement in Czechoslovakia. Inspired by the lives of Zápotocký’s mother and grandmother, the film tells the story of young Tereza, transformed from a naive provincial girl into an enlightened class warrior. Tereza fights to improve her own life and that of her family, joining forces with workers’ cooperatives to achieve this aim. She knows that without bold and courageous efforts, the lot of the working masses will never improve... Director Stanislav Strnad (Můj brácha má prima bráchu – My Brother Has a Marvellous Brother, 1975; Brácha za všechny peníze – What a Brother I Have, 1978; Kluci z bronzu – The Bronze Boys, 1980) follows a screenplay by Pavel Torda which rejects historical accuracy in favour of offering the kind of ideological statement sought by the authorities backing this project. Eva Trejtnarová assumes the leading role.
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