Cuckoo in the Dark Forest

The story of several boys and girls from the Nazi-liquidated village of Lidice who were selected to be Germanised. Inspired by Eduard Pergner’s novel Děti s cedulkou (Children with a Tag, 1982), this 1984 drama from director Antonín Moskalyk strongly borrows from the book. The film tells the story of young Emilka (Miroslava Součková), who thanks to her Aryan appearance is adopted by the German commander of the fictional Kukucka concentration camp (played by noted Soviet actor Oleg Tabakov). In order to save her life, the young girl must, outwardly at least, be seen to adjust to her new life. The story was adapted for the silver screen by the writer Vladimír Körner, who also focused on World War II in other films including Adelheid (Adelheid, 1969), Cukrová bouda (The Little Sugar House, 1980), Zánik samoty Berhof (The Downfall of the Secluded Berghof, 1983) and Pramen života (The Spring of Life, 2000). The latter of these films, directed by Milan Cieslar, tells a story very similar to that told in Kukačka v temném lese (Cuckoo in the Dark Forest). Similarly, Moskalyk was examining Holocaust themes as far back as the 1960s with TV movie Modlitba pro Kateřinu Horowitzovou (A Prayer for Kateřina Horowitz, 1965) and Dita Saxová (Dita Saxová, 1967) – both of these are adaptations of works by Jewish writer Arnošt Lustig.