Diamonds of the Night

  • Jan Němec
  • Czechoslovakia
  • 1964
  • 67'
  • Démanty noci

Diamonds of the Night, based on an autobiographical story Darkness Casts No Shadow by Arnošt Lustig, a Holocaust survivor, started the career of one of the most original Czech filmmakers of the 1960s, Jan Němec. It tells the story of two teenage Jewish men who escape from a train that is taking them to a concentration camp. Moving freely between the present, fantasies and flashbacks, Němec employs an aesthetic of Pure Cinema to depict the state of the distressed human mind. The elliptic editing, minimalist sound (with almost no dialogue) and hallucinatory compositions free it from realism and turn it into a visceral sensory experience.

Subtitles: HR

Jan Němec

Based on an autobiographical story Darkness Casts No Shadow by Arnošt Lustig, the film tells the story of two teenage Jewish boys who escape from a train taking them to a concentration camp. Minimalist sound (with almost no dialogue) and a mix of fantasies and flashbacks free the film from realism and turn it into a sensory experience. Němec was forced into exile in 1974 after several political films.

Diamonds of the Night

Director
Jan Němec
Screenplay
Arnošt Lustig, Jan Němec
Cast
Ladislav Jánský, Antonín Kumbera, Ilse Bischofová
DOP
Jaroslav Kučera, Miroslav Ondříček
Editing
Miroslav Hájek
Producer
Jan Procházka, Erich Svabík
Production
Československý Filmexport 
Festivals & Awards
Mannheim-Heidelberg Int’l Film Festival 1964 – Grand Prix

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