The Cinematheque

“One of central European cinema’s major masterpieces.”

Michael Brooke, Sight and Sound

Routinely hailed as one of the greatest Czech films of all time, František Vláčil’s monumental Marketa Lazarová just might be ​“the most convincing film about the Middle Ages made anywhere” (Michael Atkinson, Village Voice). Bergman’s The Seventh Seal meets Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai in a sprawling, visually dazzling, brutally realistic portrait of 13th-century Europe at the crossroads of paganism and Christianity. The striking Slovak actor Magda Vášáryová is title character Marketa, daughter of the clan Lazar, who is kidnapped by merciless Mikoláš of rival clan Kozlík on the eve of her entry into a convent. Based on a novel by Vladislav Vančura, the film abounds in haunting, hallucinatory animal imagery that evokes a profoundly predatory and alien world. The production was painstakingly prepared by Vláčil, who insisted on absolute historical authenticity in the costumes, props, and sets. A medieval epic of staggering power and purpose.

In Czech and German with English subtitles

“An epic medieval meditation … Stark, daring, and often astoundingly dynamic … It’s not so much a drama as an ancient litany—mystical and feral rather than spiritual or religious.”

Nick Bradshaw, Time Out

“[An] expensive, uncompromising epic … Rapturously transporting.”

Jeva Lange, Screen Slate