Description
Directed by Pavel Jurácek
Pavel Jurácek's free-form and darkly surreal adaptation of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels also channels Lewis Carroll and Franz Kafka to create one of Czechoslovak cinema's most audacious and disturbing works.
Lost on a country road, a man finds himself trapped in a nightmare world that mirrors Communist-era Czechoslovakia. This transgressive film, like his earlier surrealist triumph Josef Kilián (1963), greatly provoked the authorities and was promptly 'banned forever'.
Jurácek, who earlier co-wrote Czech masterworks like Vera Chytilová experimental Daisies, Jindrich Polák's pioneering sci-fi epic Ikarie XB 1 and Karel Zeman's historical fantasy A Jester's Tale, was never allowed to direct another film - but his legacy and his commitment to poetic and political truth, remains one of the most profound, invigorating and important in all Czech cinema.
Presented from a stunning new 4K restoration, our region-free Blu-ray and DVD editions also feature a new 4K restoration Jurácek and Jan Schmidt’s renowned Josef Kilián (Postava k podpírání), two additional short films, a 24-page booklet featuring a new essay by film historian Michael Brooke... and more!
"A formally audacious political fantasia that transforms the third book of Gulliver's Travels into an allegory on coercion and tyranny... it stands with Vera Chytilová's Daisies, Ivan Passer's Intimate Lighting, and Miloš Forman's The Firemen's Ball as one of the major achievements of the Czech New Wave" Chicago Reader
"Here is absurdity, transgression, jet-black comedy and the unexplained" Time Out
"A rare film, even within the context of the underappreciated Czech New Wave, but it has a unique, timeless brilliance" Film Walrus
Josef Kilián:
1963 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival / Winner: Grand Prix
1963 Mannheim International Film Festival / Winner: FIPRESCI Prize
"A wonderfully clever, surreal, and gloomy yet enjoyable tale, perfect for cat lovers and fans of Eastern European cinema" Bonjour Tristesse
"Jurácek and Schmidt scarcely put a foot wrong in evoking the incomprehensible mazes - simultaneously absurd and terrifying - of totalitarian bureaucracy" Time Out
Product details
| SKU | 5060114151437 |
| Alphabetical Title | Case for a Rookie Hangman, A |
| Brand / Publisher | Second Run |
| Catalogue Number | SRDVD126 |
| Certificate | 12 |
| Countries | Czechoslovakia |
| Director | Jurácek, Pavel |
| DVD Region | 0 |
| Extras | <ul style |
| Format | DVD |
| Language(s) | Czech |
| Product contents | 1 disc |
| Running time | 103 mins |
| Subtitles | English |
| Year | 1969 (DVD 2019) |
Extras
