film_summary
Early twentieth century history is the terrain of director Martin Hollý in this 1981 motion picture co-produced by the Barrandov (Prague) and Koliba (Slovakia) film studios. Noční jezdci (Night Riders) tell the story of former Czech legionnaires, who serve in border patrols on the Slovak-Polish border in 1920. Police constable Eda Halva (Radoslav Brzobohatý) arrives in a remote village to deal with local horse smugglers. The honourable war veteran gains a mortal adversary in Marek Orban (Michal Dočolomanský), who wants to use the proceeds from horse smuggling to move the entire village to America. Unfortunately, his hopes are dashed in a series of bloody skirmishes that turn out to be entirely needless in the light of later “big” historical events. Beautiful mountain locales, an unusual, almost western-like plot, and great acting performances feature in this genre drama.
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