Shades of Fern Backdrop Blur
Shades of Fern Poster
4.8 1h 30m

Shades of Fern

Based on the only extensive prose work by the surrealist painter Josef Capek, Shades of Fern most resembles the philosophical fairy tales and fables of Josef’s older brother, the legendary Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek. Two young poachers, more boys than men, kill a gamekeeper when they are caught illegally hunting. Panicked, they retreat into a forest that grows steadily more forbidding and deadly as their fear for the future—and guilt over their action—mounts. Loosely based on hundreds of oral folk tales and legends that haunt the woods of Czechoslovakia, Vlácil’s contemporary updating artistically underscores the relationship between man and nature, crime and punishment, isolation and society, and guilt and memory.

Top Cast

  • Marek Probosz

    Marek Probosz

    Ruda Aksamit

  • Zbigniew Suszyński

    Zbigniew Suszyński

    Vašek Kala

  • Miroslav Macháček

    Miroslav Macháček

    Keeper / Vagabond / Beggar

  • František Peterka

    František Peterka

    Father Aksamit

  • Vladimír Hlavatý

    Vladimír Hlavatý

    Čepelka

  • Milada Ježková

    Milada Ježková

    Čepelková

  • Josef Patočka

    Josef Patočka

    Elsner

  • Oldřich Velen

    Oldřich Velen

    Police Officer

  • Jaroslav Tomsa

    Jaroslav Tomsa

    Policeman

Overview

Based on the only extensive prose work by the surrealist painter Josef Capek, Shades of Fern most resembles the philosophical fairy tales and fables of Josef’s older brother, the legendary Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek. Two young poachers, more boys than men, kill a gamekeeper when they are caught illegally hunting. Panicked, they retreat into a forest that grows steadily more forbidding and deadly as their fear for the future—and guilt over their action—mounts. Loosely based on hundreds of oral folk tales and legends that haunt the woods of Czechoslovakia, Vlácil’s contemporary updating artistically underscores the relationship between man and nature, crime and punishment, isolation and society, and guilt and memory.

Rating

4.8 / 10
12 Reviews
0 Popular

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