The read
It runs a compact 1h 30m.
Synopsis
Based on the only extensive prose work by the surrealist painter Josef Capek, Shades of Fern most resembles the philosophical fairy tales and fables of Josef’s older brother, the legendary Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek. Two young poachers, more boys than men, kill a gamekeeper when they are caught illegally hunting. Panicked, they retreat into a forest that grows steadily more forbidding and deadly as their fear for the future—and guilt over their action—mounts. Loosely based on hundreds of oral folk tales and legends that haunt the woods of Czechoslovakia, Vlácil’s contemporary updating artistically underscores the relationship between man and nature, crime and punishment, isolation and society, and guilt and memory.
Ratings
12 audience votes
Key crew
- František VláčilDirector
- Jiří F. SvobodaOriginal Music Composer
- Vladimír KörnerScreenplay
- František VláčilScreenplay
Cast
- Marek ProboszRuda Aksamit
- Zbigniew SuszyńskiVašek Kala
- Miroslav MacháčekKeeper / Vagabond / Beggar
- František PeterkaFather Aksamit
- Vladimír HlavatýČepelka
- Milada JežkováČepelková
- Josef PatočkaElsner
- Oldřich VelenPolice Officer
- Jaroslav TomsaPoliceman
- Marta VančurováRousová
- Emma ČernáKeeper's Wife
- Jana ŠvandováCast