Ilja Prachar

In his first feature film, Juraj Herz established himself as an original auteur with a flair for refined style. In accord with Hana Bělohradská’s novel Poslední večeře (The Last Supper), he created a dark atmosphere filled with suspicion and despair around a criminal plot. Znamení Raka (1966) is set in the hospital where the crime will take place. In a consulting room, somebody will murder Dr. Hahn – and due to the physician’s reputation as a womaniser, the list of suspects grows… Herz filled the unusual setting with bizarre figures, among whom shines the character of the terminally ill Prokopa, as embodied by Iva Janžurová. Znamení Raka (Sign of the Cancer) faced a series of problems, as Herz was forced to change the post-synchronisation and to omit a series of sexually explicit scenes. Real-life physicians, outraged by the unqualified communist physician character (Ilja Prachř), also protested against the film.Read More »

While driving to Poland, a Czech man and woman have an argument. The woman gets out of the car to relieve herself, and the driver of the car runs over her, killing her. Meanwhile, in a Czech mountain town, a young man inquires after the girl, which piques the interest of the police.Read More »

Synopsis:
Transport from Paradise is set in an unusual World War II concentration camp. The lax Nazi guards permit their Jewish prisoners to roam freely about the camp and conduct their own business and social affairs, without the threat of instant extermination looming over their heads. The prisoners’ main fear is that they may at any moment be shipped off to one of the death camps. In the film’s incredibly heartbreaking climax, a group of prisoners willingly board a train to Auschwitz, laboring under the delusion that they are being sent to another “paradise” camp at the behest of the Council of Jewish Elders. Though it stretches credibility at times, Transport from Paradise is purportedly based on a true story.Read More »