260610
260610

Moravian Hellas

1964-01-01
5.5
cs 33m
Documentary
Karel Vachek’s graduate film offers us a documentary essay which is both a light-hearted and aggressive little piece and also a parody of investigative film journalism. The Strážnice folk festival, backed by the cultural Party apparatus of the time, for years had little to commend itself to authentic folklore. In the film the event assumes the form of a bizarre stage spectacle with almost surrealistic elements that Vachek reinforces with unconventional approaches (commentary appearing as titles on screen, singing, declamations into the camera, feature etudes, the fusion of news coverage and fiction). The result is a stirring film collage depicting various characters, from crowd-pleasers, Easter egg decorators, kitsch artists and peddlers, to museologists and local residents, all of whom come up against the eccentric "identical” twin reporters Karel and Jan Saudek and a bored actress who appears as an extra. Using their special blend of irony and wit, they present us with the sad truth.

Story

Karel Vachek

Screenplay

Karel Vachek

Sound

Benjamin Astrug

Sound

Lubomír Zajíc

Production Manager

Emil Havlín

Music Director

Štěpán Koníček

folk festival student film

Status

Released

Countries

  • Czechoslovakia

Companies

  • Krátký film Praha