(Stín kapradiny)

Content: 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.

Countries:

Czechoslovakia

Genres:

Drama,

Crime

Runtime:

90 minutes

Year:

1986

Directors:

František Vláčil

Production companies:

Filmové studio Barrandov

Actors:

Ruda Aksamit

Vašek Kala

Keeper / Vagabond / Beggar

Father Aksamit

Čepelka

Crews:

Director

Costume Design

Original Music Composer

Director of Photography

Editor