Cinema
Diamonds of the Night
Démanty noci
Jan Němec · 1964
Synopsis
Two young men whose names we are not told jump from a train taking them to a concentration camp and flee through the forest. Exhausted, starving, hunted, they advance almost without speaking; their flight is mixed with memories, dreams and hallucinations that colour what they perceive, and the time of the film almost follows that of their run.
Context
Drawn from Arnošt Lustig's short story Tma nemá stín, which he wrote the screenplay for with the director, the film extends his graduation short film, adapted from the same author. Photographed by Jaroslav Kučera and Miroslav Ondříček, with costumes by Ester Krumbachová, it was re-edited several times before finding its form, which its maker called a dreamlike realism. Released on 25 September 1964, it was restored in 2018 and presented at Cannes Classics.
Who it is for
About sixty minutes, almost without dialogue; silence and editing carry the narrative.
Prizes and reception
Grand Prize at the Mannheim festival in 1964, one of the first international successes of the Czechoslovak New Wave.