Blazena Holisová

A study of the Czech poet Karel Hynek Mácha.

This 1978 film, set in 1907, is a tribute commemorating the 80th year of Czechoslovak filmmaking. Among the accomplishments of Czechoslovak filmmakers of the period are, the improvement on the Lumière camera and the creation of a commercially viable indigenous cinema years before Berlin. Czechoslovak films were sufficiently distinctive and plentiful to make a notable contribution to world cinema of the time. In this movie, the filming of several one-reel movies of the period is re-enacted.

The story of the film is based on Václav Kaplický's book Kladivo na carodejnice (1963), a novel about witch trials in Northern Moravia during the 1670s. The black-and-white allegorical film, full of symbols, follows the events of the trial of the priest Kryštof Lautner. Unwillingness to stop the evil in the beginning only encourages the inquisitor to graduate his accusations and use torture. The vicious circle scares everyone from resistance. (Wikipedia)