BFK | 19.04.2023 | Marketa Lazarová (1967)

Set in 13th century Czechia, František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová is a curious representative of the Czechoslovak New Wave. While many of its contemporaries satirically explore their immediate reality (communist Czechoslovakia in the 60s), Marketa Lazarová, at least at first sight, tells a medieval story of warring clans and their clash with the royal rule. In the midst of this is an eponymous protagonist, the young daughter of the head of one of the clans. Being promised to a convent by her father, Marketa is abducted by a rival clan. The story of Marketa is the tonal centre of the film, around which a polyphony of other interrelated stories unfolds.

The brutality, relentlessness, and austere symbolism of Marketa Lazarová's subject matter is subverted by Vláčil's daring cinematography, marked by the non-linearity of its narrative, expressionistic sound design, and innovative montage. It is by no means surprising that Marketa Lazarová is considered by many as one of the pinnacles of Czechoslovak cinema.