Summary
The world of horse breeding and horse racing is a recurring subject in Czechoslovak film, especially in connection with stories targeted at younger viewers. Such is the case with Dynamit (Dynamite), the 1989 feature-film debut of director Milan Cieslar. The main protagonist is student Martina, who spends a summer working at her uncle’s stud farm. In the course of her stay, she becomes entangled in a drama involving a potential champion horse at the struggling stable named Dynamit. A greedy foreigner wants the prized horse, and sets about acquiring it with the aid of a corrupt trainer, and an outwardly likeable vet, with whom Martina falls in love. Cieslar enriches the gripping tale with traditional genre approaches, and a tense, claustrophobic atmosphere. Lesser-known actors also add to the impact of the work.
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