Shadows of a hot Summer - CLASSICS

Original title: Stíny horkého léta

Directed by: František Vláčil

Country: Czechslovakia

Length: 99 min.

Premiere: Karlovy Vary Film Festival 1978

Availability: voyo , kviff.tv

New restoration premiered at Karlovy Vary Film Festival in 2024. 

Synopsis: 1947. Ondřej Baran struggles with a violent past as a partisan, when a group of disbanded Banderites takes his family hostage.  

RATING: 3.5/5

THE KNOWN VLACIL 

Best known internationally for Marketa Lazarová and The Valley of the Bees, František Vláčil is often associated to the Czechslovak New Wave, the group of innovative filmmakers that rose to prominence in Czecchlovakia during the '60s, going on to win oscars (the case of The Shop of Main Street or Closely Watched Trains), or have stellar careers in Hollywood as it happened to Miloš Forman. It is a bit of an oversimplification, because Vláčil had a film career that spanned before and after the New Wave -though he too was greatly impacted by the same mechanisms that censored most New Wave filmmakers who remained in the country after the Prague Spring of 1968. Marketa and Bees are both films set in medieval times, centered on the conflict between paganism and early christian expansions, with this particular, chaotic and visually gorgeous style that employed a widescreen, closeups, large panoramic shots, and an ever-handheld camera to provide a sense of pure mayhem.

AN OPPRESSED VLACIL

Shadows of a Hot Summer is a film that Vláčil directed ten years after the Prague Spring. in 1978, he had just directed two years prior one other film after a long period in which he was denied the permission to shoot, due to his films of the 60s. This impacts Shadows ofa hot summer in two different ways: not only Vláčil's own attitude is that of a more mature auteur, but the impact of a controling censorship can be the reason for several choices. With finally being able to direct a second film after long, Vláčil could simply not allow himself to direct something like Marketa Lazarová anymore. The sense of oppression is palpable in the film, the controlling presence of the Banderites seems almost a parallel to the filmmaker's post-Prague Spring censorship.

 

TENSE SLOW SUMMER

With less "exhuberant" tools, Shadows of a Hot Summer is a much, much slower film. The soundtrack sometimes feels too outdated for its age, but it really manages to convey, with the pacing, the idea of a slowly passing summer.  A very unique atmosphere, that definitely makes this film virtually opposite to the sort of Vláčil films best known by the contemporary international audience. While certainly a slow film, by the time of the second act, slowness and tension coexist, adding to an atmosphere that is utterly hopeless. The main, repeated life motive is almost a sad jazz piece with its arrangement. Everything builds up to the final, ten minutes or so long climax, raising stakes to a point that, even if this is hardly an action film, a viewer can't avoid an emotional involvement in the element of risk.

BANDERITES TODAY

During World War II, the Banderites where an ultranationalist Ukrainan group that at certain times was allied with Germany, at others was also aligned against them, but that has become infamous for their numerous war crimes during the war. In such a 1978 film, they are basically considered the same as nazis, or almost by the Czech characters. In 2024, the Banderites have a very complex legacy: russian propaganda uses this group and the expression to push their narrative of modern Ukraine as a nazifascist state, on the other hand, their leader Bandera has sometimes indeed been reinstated as a national hero, despite the racially motivated massacres the group carried out. Karlovy Vary's choice of bringing back this restoration to a modern audience is certainly an interesting choice that clearly aims to raise a debate on the connotations of war-related legacies and the strumentalisation of figures that may have a controversial background.