Zvony pre bosých

When they attempt to take off the boots of a German killed in a skirmish, Ondrej and Stašek realise that the enemy is in fact still alive. Not yet seventeen years old, he is nothing but an impertinent youth. At the mercy of the forces of nature and cut off from their commanding officers, the partisans have to decide for themselves whether they want to stick to the rules and go to the trouble of taking this prisoner of war to their superiors.

In the liberal 1960s director Stanislav Barabaš abandoned the hitherto prevalent ideological view of the war in this now little-known masterpiece, focusing as it does on individual decisions and questions of morality whilst also revealing the utter absurdity of war. The camerawork of Vincent Rosinec, the “poet of the cinematic image” (director Eduard Grečner), tells this dramatic story in suggestive black and white images of a snowy landscape, often from unexpected perspectives, whilst the pioneering music of Czech composer Zdeněk Liška, combining as it does synthesizer and organ sounds, underlines the tense atmosphere of this most unconventional war film.