Zealous Reporter

Singer Josef Laufer embodied the journalist Egon Erwin Kisch (1885–1948) twice during the years of 1987 and 1988. In two motion pictures directed by Martin Hollý – Zuřivý reportér (The Zealous Reporter, 1987) and Lovec senzací (The Sensation Hunter, 1988), Laufer’s big screen portrayals demonstrate that the Prague-born journalist and writer Kisch was deservedly nicknamed “der rasende Reporter” (“the Racing Reporter”). In Zuřivý reporter, a Czechoslovak-German coproduction, Kisch’s desire to experience everything for himself leads him to a common lodging house for the poor. There a roommate describes how he got his rather strange tattoo. The reporter’s enduring curiousness puts him on the trail of a telegram from German Kaiser Wilhelm II which suggests that war might break out. The legendary black rose that blooms in the garden of heir presumptive Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Konopiště serves as another ominous pointer to what lies ahead… Alongside Laufer, members of the cast of family fantasy Pražská 5 (The Prague Five) appear in this feature film, namely Ondřej Trojan and Šimon Caban (overdubbed by Milan Šteindler).