Summary
Director Juraj Herz experimented with numerous genres in the 1980s, from his adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale Přezůvky štěstí (The Galoshes of Fortune, 1986) to the comedy Sladké starosti (Sweet Troubles, 1984), a mafia film parody Buldoci a třešně (Bulldogs and Cherries, 1981), the drama Zastihla mě noc (Caught by Night, 1985), and the sci-fi horror flick Upír z Feratu (The Vampire of Ferato, 1981). Yet the most unusual film he created during the decade, which culminated with the director’s emigration to West Germany (1987), was Straka v hrsti (A Magpie in the Hand, 1988). Publicist, theatrologist and screenwriter Antonín Přidal adapted and updated a medieval play called Mastičkář (The Quack, or The Ointment Seller) to fit Herz’s needs while preserving its carnival-like theatricality. Even though the story appears to be timeless, the result was an encrypted “play of love and hate” satirising contemporary social and political practices. The medieval marketplace is adjacent to a modern-day wasteyard and the protagonists are as much actors as characters and timeless figures of the Middle Ages representing everlasting, persistent human traits. Young Rubín (Jan Hrušínský) is in love with thieving drifter Straka (Györgyi Tarján), while unfaithful townswoman Anděla (Zdeňka Sajfertová) and sly quack Severín (Boris Rösner) attempt to obtain a priceless pearl stolen from an old moneylender (Leoš Suchařípa). However, what the pearl brings is misery and frustration. A gang of highwaymen on motorbikes, royal pages and a group of travelling thespians all add to the colourfulness of the “eternal” society that passes through the ages, complete with all its desires, loving and hating, despite the changing costumes and shifting sceneries... The thinly veiled attacks of the political collage that mixes the past with the present with the rhythm of carnival ran into trouble even during the making of the film. To make things a tad worse, the soundtrack was by the Pražský výběr band, which was banned from public performance at the time (one song title gave the film its name). The film production also ground to a halt while an investigation of alleged lewdness was under way. Straka v hrsti (A Magpie in the Hand) eventually went straight into the censor’s vault, never to appear on the silver screen. It finally reached audiences after 1989 on video cassettes.
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