Release Date: 12 August 2013Štefan Uher’s exquisite, groundbreaking film is consistently ranked amongst the greatest films in the history of Czechoslovak cinema. It is also recognised as the film that kick-started the ‘Czechoslovak New Wave’, one of cinema’s great creative movements.
Bringing to the screen a number of then-unacceptable social and political themes (given the strict censorship of the time), combined with surprising sexual frankness and an exhilaratingly freewheeling approach, The Sun in a Net presented an authenticity in its depiction of ordinary lives that immediately struck a strong chord with audiences, consequently leading to the film being judged unsuitable by the authorities. This landmark film now finally gets its British premiere fifty years on from its first screening.
The DVD is presented in a superb new HD digital transfer with restored picture and sound and features a newly filmed appreciation by filmmaker Peter Strickland (Katalin Varga, Berberian Sound Studio), and a new essay on the film by author Peter Hames.
The Sun in a Net will be the first in a series of essential Slovak classic films to be released by Second Run DVD.
• Superb new HD digital transfer with restored picture
and sound
• An appreciation – new and exclusive interview with filmmaker Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio, Katalin Varga)
• 20-page booklet featuring a new essay by author and film programmer Peter Hames
• Available for the first time on DVD in the
English-speaking world.
• Optimal quality dual-layer disc.
Marián Bielik – Fayolo
Jana Beláková – Bela
Oľga Šalagová – Jana
Eliška Nosálová – Stana Blažejová (Bela's mother)
Andrej Vandlík – Jan Blažej (Bela's father)
Adam Jančo – Blažej (grandfather)
Pavol Chrobák – Farm supervisor
Vladimír Malina – Fisherman
Ľubomír Roman – Peto
Peter Lobotka – Milo (Bela's brother)
Directed by Štefan Uher
Story and screenplay – Alfonz Bednár
Cinematography – Stanislav Szomolányi
Music – Ilja Zeljenka
Sound – Rudolf Pavlíček
Art direction – Juraj Červík
Editor – Bedřich Voděrka
“The Sun in a Net is still fresh and young, complex and rewarding. It has the vivacity and love of life that we found in the early films of Truffaut, for example. The only mystery is why has it been unknown outside Czechoslovakia for almost half a century?”
Senses of Cinema
“This beautiful gem has lain undiscovered for
so many years” Peter Strickland
“Uher's exquisite, groundbreaking feature combines daring social criticism, surprising sexual frankness and an exhilarating approach to the film medium”
Michael Brooke, MovieMail