Footsteps

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1960

Production year

1960

Premiere

4 October 1963

Runtime

21 min

Category

film

Genre

drama

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionstudent filmshort

Original title

Stopy

Czech title

Stopy

English title

Footsteps

Synopsis

It is winter 1944. A wretched man staggers towards the nearest house. He is an escaped prisoner of war, a Russian, and farmer Bernát takes him into his protection. The German occupation government hangs a public notice of reward for anyone who can give information about the fugitive. The incompetent and jealous farmer Joudal discovers footsteps in the snow and denounces the Bernát family. After the entire family is arrested he wins their estate. He tries to defend himself to his wife for what he did. The local gendarme watches disapprovingly as Joudal changes the name-tag on Bernát's rack wagon. Revolted, he asks the peasant what he thinks he will do when the Bernát family returns. Joudal takes a ride through the village in a horse-drawn carriage. An attendant stops him and makes him read the public notice announcing that the Bernát couple was executed together with their son Toník. A crowd of farmers surrounds Joudal in silence. They quietly decide to sentence their fellow-countryman to death. During a night ride on his bicycle Joudal hits a wire stretched across the road and is killed.

Note

The story was distributed together with two others: Hatred and The Dynamite Watcher under a common title The Dynamite Watcher.

Cast

Václav Lohniský

sedlák Karel Joudal

Věra Tichánková

Joudalova žena

Oldřich Lukeš

sedlák Josef Bernát

Světla Amortová

Anna, Bernátova žena

František Kovářík

obecní posluha

Vladimír Hlavatý

četník štábní Franta Kudrna

Ladislav Kazda

ruský uprchlík

Jan Odl

Toník, syn Bernátových

Max Schindler

četník

Stanislav Pica

kovář

obyvatelé Arnoštovic

obyvatelé Borkovic

Crew and creators

Based on

Jan Drda (Vesnická historie – povídka ze sbírky Němá barikáda)

Screenplay

Jan Hartman

Director of Photography

Jiří Volbracht

Production Designer

Milan Nejedlý

Make-Up Artist

Karel Holek

Sound Designer

Hanuš Silvera

Production Manager

Jan Černý, Miloslav Vaněk (vedoucí výrobního štábu), Jozef Spišák (vedoucí výrobního štábu)

Pedagogical management

František Daniel (dramaturgie), Miroslav Hubáček (režie), Václav Hanuš (kamera)

Music

Music Composed by

Jiří Kalach

Production info

Original Title

Stopy

Czech Title

Stopy

English Title

Footsteps

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionstudent film

Genre

drama

Student film

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1960

Production Year

1960

Production specifications

projection approval 12 February 1963
withdrawal from distribution 31 August 1976

Premiere

premiere 27 September 1963 /suitable for youths/ (celostátní)
premiere 4 October 1963 /suitable for youths/ (kino Lucerna /1 týden/, Praha)

Production

Studio FAMU

Copyright Holders

Národní filmový archiv

Distribution

Ústřední půjčovna filmů (v pásmu Hlídač dynamitu /filmy Stopy, Hlídač dynamitu, Nenávist/)

Technical info

Duration typology

short film

Duration in minutes

21 min

Original length in metres

580 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm, 35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37

Colour

black & white

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech

Awards

Vítěz

Festival: 5. mezinárodní festival dokumentárních a experimentálních filmů Montevideo

1962
Montevideo / Uruguay

Vítěz

Festival: 3. festival českých a slovenských filmů Ostrava

1961
Ostrava / Czechoslovakia