Dir: Jindrich Polák | Cast: Petr Koska, Jiri Sovak, Vladimir Mensik, Vlastimil Brodsky | Czechoslovakia 1977, 93′
Jindrich Polak (1925-2003) was a director little known in the west but he made two memorable contributions to the science fiction genre. (The first being a 1963 production called Ikarie XB1.)
From a long study of the matter I have come to the conclusion that the Czech cinema possesses a singular quirkiness that is manifest in this strangely titled confection finally returning to the South Bank nearly half a century after it was included in a November 1978 season of recent Czech productions.
I had the good fortune to catch it’s sole BBC screening in January 1982 and for decades after used to enthuse to my friends about this terrific film that only I seemed to have seen (not quite the only one since Peter Nicholls in his 1984 book ‘Fantastic Cinema: An Illustrated Survey’ urged his readers to “See this if you ever have the chance”). @RichardChatten.
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