Cinema
The Strike
Siréna
Karel Steklý · 1947
Synopsis
Kladno, 1889. The miners of the Hudec family, like their comrades, can no longer bear the working conditions and the starvation wages. Anger turns into a strike, but the general manager and owner of the mines, Bacher, refuses to negotiate; after the suicide of one of their number, events move quickly and the miners decide to take their fate into their own hands.
Context
The film takes up two chapters of Marie Majerová's novel, published in 1935, and is set in the real strike of 1889, put down by the gendarmerie. Shot from September to December 1946, with cinematography by Jaroslav Tuzar and a sombre score by E. F. Burian, it was given a preview in Kladno on 10 April 1947 and released in Prague the following day. Its manner, close to Italian neorealism, carried its success to Venice; it was restored in 2021 by the national film archive and the Karlovy Vary festival.
Who it is for
About eighty minutes, the running time varying between copies; a family and social chronicle, in black and white.
Prizes and reception
Golden Lion at the Venice festival in 1947, the first won by a Czechoslovak film; State Prize the same year.