KRAKATIT  1948 *  Directed by Otakar Vávra * 97 minutes * In Czech with English subtitles
Dreamy Czech New Wave with an anti-war theme and a film-noir aestheticAlthough Czech New Wave films have gotten a bit of attention in the last few years, there was of course wonderful cinema in Czechoslovakia before the 1960s... the so-called New Wave didn't come out of nowhere. This film drifts in a kind of dream logic, beginning with a wounded man staggering through the streets of Prague. The movie unfolds through his bewildered memories and fantasies. In a way, it is a kind of sci-fi noir, flickering with an expressionist flair, along with a hard-hitting message.

This flick is based on a story written by one of the country's best loved authors - Karel Čapek (who invented the word 'robot' as early as the 1930s). Directly after World War II, Czechoslovakia was transitioning to communism. And this movie's overarching anti-war theme comes down particularly hard on condemning nuclear war... after all it was made only a few years after America dropped two devastating nuclear bombs on Japan. That makes this flick one of the very first to address the issue of possible nuclear annihilation. It might just be a bit anti-American also, since it condemns anyone with the gall to commit such an atrocity. Believe it or not, the former East bloc was strongly anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons for a long time. It was rather the United States arms industry, because it could make money from war, that created the war-filled world we live in today.

This is not a gruesome film in any way, it is more delirious, at times even bordering on surrealism with its mixed-up dreamworld seen through the eyes of our feverish main character. But you do get the sense of dread and anxiety about what would happen if weapons like this are used. A darkly atmospheric Czech gem with a sci-fi noir edge that is unknown these days, and / but is totally up to date with our present predicament.

This will be a high-definition screening.