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KRYSTOF

By Zdenek JIRASKY

ALEF FILM & MEDIA - as PROD

Drama - Completed 2021

On faith, hope and sacrifice.

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Drama
- Countries
- SLOVAKIA, CZECH REPUBLIC
- Languages
- CZECH, SLOVAKIAN, GERMAN
- Duration
- 101 mn
- Director(s)
- Zdenek JIRASKY
- Cast
- Mikulas BUKOVJAN, Alexandra BORBELY, David UZSAK, Marian MITAS, Stanislav MAJER, Lubos VESELY, Marek GEISBERG, Lubos KOSTELNY
- Producer(s)
- Marian URBAN (ALEF FILM & MEDIA), Olga RAITORALOVA (Fulfilm)
- Synopsis
- Krystof,a youth approaching adulthood,is living as a new postulant before taking his vows in a community of monks somewhere in Šumava. Not only does he share with the brothers their world of contemplation, but also their role as a link in the long chain smuggling fugitives from the Communist regime across the border to Bavaria. During one night-time expedition he is witness to a brutal attack on a group of students who want illegal cross the border to Germany. More than this: this was the night when as part of the infamous K Action (April 1950) religious communities were liquidated. The sanctuary in which he had placed his hope and faith has been decimated. Then he comes across a slightly-injured student who naively imagined he could just cross the border, join the Americans, and liberate Czechoslovakia.Krystof reckons that their best protection would be to move away from the border zone.Their desperate flight together is a kind of "roadmovie" of the Czechoslovak landscape along with a futile search for the incarcerated monks in a split Central Europe country and society.To resolve the situation Cyril decides for a clearly violent act of liberation which Krystof refuses to take part in.Cyril ends up a captive, and Krystof becomes a fugitive. In desperation he knocks on the door of a small farmhouse on the outskirts of a Šumava village: Johanna, a slightly older woman whose husband is serving in a legion abroad but promises to return home soon and emigrate with her.Krystof sees his hope in Johana’s resolution and rationality, that together they will survive more than this brief encounter. They have one last chance for survival - to get across the as yet unsealed border. And it is also the last chance to preserve the sign language manuscript from an old European culture.They flee. But if they both survive, if the one sacrifices themselves for the other, or if they fail together,we will leave to the definitive version of the screenplay and situation is decided on…