A Defense of Young Executioners

This film (drama)Also known asPřípad pro začínajícího kata，is aCzechoslovakiaProducerwomen sex，At1970Released in year 。The dialogue language isCzech，Current Douban rating8.2(For reference only)。

This film can be considered a modern version of "Gulliver's Travels," adapted from Swift's cynical social and political satire masterpiece. Lubomir Kostelka plays the modern Gulliver, who suddenly awakens after a car crash and, after walking through a forest, begins to search for a mysterious land called Leptea, having heard it is a beautiful place. On the way, he discovers a dead rabbit wearing human clothes and takes a pocket watch from its pocket, noticing that the watch runs backward. He continues forward, encountering various strange and complex people and events, leading to an absurd surreal adventure. The film "A Defense of Young Executioners" is internationally recognized as Juraj Herz's most perfect cinematic masterpiece and is one of the most important and "notorious" works of the Czech New Wave film movement of the 1960s. This passionate and bizarre political satire was completed after the Soviet tank invasion and was immediately banned by authorities upon release, permanently ending Herz's filmmaking career. Bold, innovative, and absolutely absurdist in its imagery, "A Defense of Young Executioners" presents the craziest adaptation of "Gulliver's Travels" in film history, almost breaking free from all forms and constraints of plot and logical thought, allowing the audience to fully enter a world of symbolism and allegory. Recognized as "one of the greatest surrealist masterpieces in film history," this film presents us with countless bizarre and metaphorical images: a clothed rabbit, a university devoted to research and invention where all the students never speak, an exquisite "hand-powered" thought machine, a country without a ninth month of the year (to avoid the flu outbreak)... Our hero Gulliver experiences and discovers all this on his journey from Lilliput to Balnibarbi and then to Leptea. "This film contains all the absurdist, surrealist, and satirical elements that go beyond your imagination, making it a perfect fusion of a utopian political satire and a grotesque fairy tale." (Rotterdam International Film Festival comment) About the director: Pavel Juráček (1935-1989) was a genius director/screenwriter/producer in the Czech New Wave film movement, hailed as the "true soul of the Czech New Wave film revolution." As one of the most unique playwrights in the revival movement of Eastern European cinema, he created several films of significant importance in Czech and Eastern European film history. "Ikarie XB-1," written by him in 1963 and directed by Jindrich Polak, is one of the ten favorite films of cinema master Kubrick and served as an inspiration for his "2001: A Space Odyssey." In 1964, he created "The Jester's Tale" for Czech animation master Karl Zeman, a classic of fantasy that combines animation, live-action, and strange photographic techniques. In 1966, he co-wrote "Daisies" with another renowned New Wave playwright Ester Krumbachova, directed by Vera Chytilova, which became the most unique masterpiece of the New Wave. A year later, he wrote the best work of Czech sci-fi master Jan Schmidt, "End of August at the Hotel Ozone." As a producer, he was the executive producer for Vera Chytilova's famous work "Fruit of Paradise" (1969) and Jiri Menzel's most legendary film "The Firemen's Ball" (filmed in 1969, released in 1990). As an innovative director, he only made two feature films and one short film in his lifetime; due to the critique and satire of communism and totalitarianism in his 1969 film "A Defense of Young Executioners," the movie was banned by authorities, and Juráček was forever prohibited from making any more films. Two years later, he lost his job at Barrandov Film Studios, and in 1977 was forced to flee to West Germany. After six years of unfulfilling life, he returned to his homeland but still saw no hope of making films again. In 1989, just before the fall of the Czech communist regime, the melancholic Juráček closed his eyes forever in Prague at the age of only 54. He became one of the few Czech filmmakers banned from filmmaking for life under twenty years of communist totalitarian rule, and his tragic passing is later recognized as one of the most painful casualties caused by totalitarianism's trampling of all artistic creation and fine filmmakers. The world lost a creative and uniquely stylized genius, comparable to Fellini. Throughout his film career, almost every work he created is considered a classic, especially his only two remaining directorial works, which fully showcase imaginative cinematic masterpieces. Due to the rarity and difficulty of accessing his films, this cinematic genius remains largely unknown even today. In August 2004, the famous CINEMATHEQUE in New York and the National Film Archive in Prague jointly held a retrospective of Juráček's films titled "In Defense of Pavel Juráček -- Rediscovering a Master of the Czech New Wave Cinema," to recommend and commemorate this prematurely departed Eastern European cinematic talent to the world. A Personal Reflection: "A Defense of Young Executioners," Juráček's second feature film and also his last work, is recognized by later generations as the most uniquely charming New Wave film following Chytilova's "Daisies," with both films co-written by Juráček. From the very beginning, the film presents us with a peculiar surreal world: a man drives his car on a deserted country road, suddenly the car rolls down into a valley, and with a camera shift, the man opens his eyes, realizing it was a dream. He continues forward, where a clothed rabbit lies dead in the middle of the road. The man bends down to take a pocket watch from the rabbit's clothes, only to find that the hands are turning backward. He continues across a field to an empty white building, walks inside, which is in disorderliness, and sees a garment identical to the rabbit's hanging on the wall. As the man instinctively reaches into his pocket, countless butterflies suddenly burst out. The man instinctively closes his eyes, and when he opens them again, all the clutter has vanished, and he finds himself in a pristine white hall... Suddenly, the shaking floor leads him to a strange room where a group of people looks up to witness a cow's execution. Countless symbolic images and superb editing techniques make this film a masterpiece that speaks entirely through imagery. Its surreal visuals are on par with Bunuel's and Dali's "Un Chien Andalou" or "The Golden Age," and the cow being sent to the gallows hints at the ultimate fate of totalitarianism. The exquisite and creative cinematography in the film comes from the renowned New Wave cinematographer Jan Kalis. Reposted from Auess