Ash Wednesday

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1970

Production year

1970

Runtime

18 min

Category

film

Genre

étude

Typology

featurenon-theatrical distributionstudent filmshort

Original title

Popeleční středa

Czech title

Popeleční středa

English title

Ash Wednesday

Synopsis

A young woman called Sofia lures an older man out to a small, secluded chapel. The arrival of two armed men, Verchovenski and Stavrogin, interrupts their loving bliss. Verchovenski starts beating up the older man, forcing him to admit to something. He calls him Viktor but the assaulted man denies being called Viktor and claims to be the local doctor. Sofia now makes love to Stavrogin also. The battered man manages to get hold of the guns and shoots the two assailants. The film ends with a sequence from St Luke's Gospel about the Gadarene swine, which drown in a lake after being entered by the demons that Christ has cast out of a possessed man.

Cast

Bořivoj Navrátil

Petr Verchovenský

Ivo Livonec

Stavrogin

Miloslav Vajnar

městský doktor

Crew and creators

Based on

Fjodor Michajlovič Dostojevskij (Běsi /Besy/ – román)

Screenplay

Jiří Svoboda

Director of Photography

Radek Očenášek

Production Manager

Karel Fiala, Přemysl Pražský

Pedagogical management

Karel Kachyňa (režie), Václav Hanuš (kamera), Josef Dobřichovský (střih)

Production info

Original Title

Popeleční středa

Czech Title

Popeleční středa

English Title

Ash Wednesday

Category

film

Typology

featurenon-theatrical distributionstudent film

Genre

étude

Student film

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1970

Production Year

1970

Production

Studio FAMU

Copyright Holders

Národní filmový archiv

Technical info

Duration typology

short film

Duration in minutes

18 min

Original length in metres

500 meters

Distribution carrier

35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,66

Colour

black & white

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Intertitles languages

Czech

Opening/End credits languages

Czech