Cinema
The River
Řeka
Josef Rovenský · 1933
Synopsis
The village mayor, Sychra, loved poaching in his youth and fears that his son Pavel, fourteen, has inherited the taste; he wants to send him to study in town. Pavel spends the summer with Pepička, the daughter of a poor thatcher, who is his age. An old pike frightens the fish in a hole in the river, and the manager of the neighbouring hotel promises a reward to whoever catches it: Pavel would like to win it to buy shoes for Pepička.
Context
The producer Jan Reiter gave the director the chance to make a film that would stand apart from current production; together they wrote the screenplay from a story by Jindřich Snížek, a writer from the Sázava region. It was the director's first sound film. Shot in twelve days, three on location and nine in the studio, and photographed by Jan Stallich, it opened at the Lucerna cinema in Prague on 13 October 1933; the song by Josef Dobeš, Silnice šedivá, was bought separately by several countries.
Who it is for
Eighty-seven minutes, a simple story of children and fishing, with Jarmila Beránková in the leading role.
Prizes and reception
Prize for directing at Venice in 1934, sold in more than thirty countries; it opens the tradition of the Czech lyrical and poetic film.