Filmmakers have been drawn to the short stories and novellas of Josef Nesvadba on numerous occasions. However, the sci-fi film Kam zmizel kurýr (The Courier Who Vanished, 1981), directed by Otakar Fuka, was made according to an original script penned by the popular writer. The courier of the film’s title is an alien who crash landed on Earth in the 17th century and has since been secretly manipulating human history. The protagonist is an extra-terrestrial envoy who arrives in Prague disguised as “Jones”, a Czech language student from Australia. The envoy’s real task is to find the alien courier and bring him back home. Young sci-fi writer Marcela becomes a witness to Jones’s quest... The film’s lead roles were played by Jan Kanyza and Eva Jakoubková. In one absorbing sequence, Jones uncovers “evidence” of the courier’s existence in, among other things, earlier Czech sci-fi films. Kam zmizel kurýr thus contains clips from Muž z prvního století (The Man from the First Century, 1961), Ikarie XB 1 (Icarus XB 1, 1963), Vynález zkázy (An Invention for Destruction, 1958), Baron Prášil (Baron Münchausen, 1961), as well as Fuka’s own Akce Bororo (Bororo Operation, 1972).
The film includes parts of Czech sci-fi films Baron Münchhausen (1961, dir. Karel Zeman), An Invention for Destruction (1958, dir. Karel Zeman), The Man from the First Century (1961, dir. Oldřich Lipský), Icarus XB-1 (dir. Jindřich Polák), Bororo Operation (1972, dir. Otakar Fuka).
Michael Allan Jones
novinářka Marcela Vosecká
docent Štafa
recepční Jandák
archivář Diviš
profesor Coutou
Láska
Svačina, znalec díla Julese Vernea
Michele
Jeanne
kurýr
cizinec
vrátná v knihovně
divák
taxikář
hlas kurýra
Bedřich Čermák, Josef Müller, Václav Kozel
Karel Prchal, Vladimír Tišer
Václav Veruněk
Vítězslava Marčíková, Jan Kuděla, Alena Chvojková, Petr Pištěk
Kam zmizel kurýr
The Courrier Who Vanished
Kurýr ze souhvězdí Pegas
film
feature
sci-fi
Czechoslovakia
1981
1981
16 October 1981
long
86 min
Czech