Seasoned director Martin Frič in 1948 carved another notch in his filmography by making a motion picture that answered the period’s demand for “political engagement”. The lead character in the narrative set just after the end of World War Two is First Lieutenant Kliment Mareš (Karel Höger). Upon his return to Prague he is painfully confronted by the open sores left in his life by the years of the Nazi occupation of his homeland. Kliment’s fiancée is now married, his friends have disappeared and both his mother and sister have been killed by the Nazis. Luckily, there is still Sergeant Stáňa (Běla Jurdová) who never wavers in her devout love for her brother in arms. The film’s finale sees the couple heading towards a new life in the Sudetenland, now a borderland region desperate for people to replace the displaced German population… Návrat domů (The Return Home) premiered in January 1949, and in April of the same year Frič released his parody Pytlákova schovanka aneb Šlechetný milionář (The Poacher's Foster Daughter), seen as so much closer to his natural style.
Lieutenant Mareš and his unit are returning to Prague just after the end of the War, in May 1945. He is looking forward to seeing his family, his fiancée and friends. His colleague Sergeant Stáňa loves him and is afraid that she will lose him in this new environment. Mareš visits old Mrs Stachová but does not have the courage to tell her that her son died in battle. He later finds out that his fiancée is now married to someone else, that his mother and sister were arrested and shot dead and his former friends are now dead or went missing during the War. He finds only the old professor who had not left his cellar flat for five years in order not to have to confront the Germans. Stáňa is disappointed that Mareš has forgotten their friendship and that he left her on her own on his first day back in Prague. In the evening they meet in the hotel where they are staying. They are told that they must leave for the border. They become aware of their mutual relationship and understand the value of their friendship. Reconciled, they leave for their new destination.
On January 7, 1949, the film was shown in thirty provincial cinemas before its Prague première.
nadporučík Kliment Mareš
četařka Stáňa
desátník Janík
profesor Blažej
Stachová
Tonča, vnučka Stachové
Marta, bývalá Marešova snoubenka
major
pokojská v hotelu
Jarmila
Fiala
Fialová
Souček, Martin otec
Součková, Martina matka
Martin strýc Alois
mladík u Součků v bytě
Sedláček, majitel koloniálu
Sedláčkův syn Zdeněk
Sedláčkova dcera Jitka
řidič džípu
recepční
prodavačka klobouků
muž radící sovětskému vojákovi
Martina dcerka
Martina teta Boža
voják ve skladu oděvů
mladý gardista v Mánesu
domovnice se žehličkou
domovnice vytírající schody
poručík
malý chlapec
Marešova matka
sovětský voják
posel z velitelství
mladík v Mánesu
muž se sirkou v ústech
vrchní v Mánesu
Karásek, majitel klobouku
V. Vacín
František Urbánek, Václav Hladký
Poljuško, pole, Partyzán, Škoda lásky, Lví silou, vzletem sokolím
Lev Knipper (Poljuško, pole), Jaromír Vejvoda (Škoda lásky), František Josef Pelz (Lví silou, vzletem sokolím)
sbor (Partyzán)
Návrat domů
The Return Home
Zabloudil v Praze / Sám
film
feature
drama
Czechoslovakia
1948
1948
28 January 1949
III. výrobní skupina Frič – Reimann, Martin Frič (umělecký šéf III. výrobní skupiny), Zdeněk Reimann (produkční šéf III. výrobní skupiny)
long
88 min
Czech