Summary
After completing his extensive historical trilogy – Dny zrady (Days of Betrayal, 1973), Sokolovo (Sokolovo, 1974) and Osvobození Prahy (The Liberation of Prague, 1975) – veteran director Otakar Vávra opted for a more intimate theme in this 1978 film – the platonic relationship between the writers Jan Neruda and Karolina Světlá. Screenwriter Jiří Šotola created this romance about a pair of exceptional and lonely human beings on the basis of their documented love correspondence. The audience follows Neruda and Světlá as they carefully seek mutual understanding in a world chained by social conventions… Miroslav Ondříček’s camera work beautifully evokes the film’s depiction of 19th century Prague during the Czech National Revival. The principal parts in Vavra’s somewhat abstractly conceived romance are performed by Jiří Bartoška and Božidara Turzonová, while Consuela Morávková takes on the role of Karolina’s sister and Jiří Pleskot that of her husband.
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