As one of the oldest film archives in the world, the National Film Archive (NFA) in Prague has managed to preserve the Czech film heritage exceptionally well: Today, NFA holds about two thirds of all Czech silent feature films and all but ten sound feature films from the period of 1930 – 1992. In order to share this rich heritage with a wider public, NFA, together with Filmexport Home Video, has started to compile a special collection DVD edition of less famous or forgotten film works, which deserve to be (re)discovered. The first film that was chosen for this archival edition is ”Marijka the Unfaithful” (“Marijka nevěrnice”), a story of social strain, love, infidelity and revenge from 1934, directed by the well-known communistic writer and intellectual Vladislav Vančura.
Set in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, a multiethnic highland area in the easternmost corner of former Czechoslovakia, the film evolves around the hard-working but poor Petro Birčak and his wife Marijka, whose cottage has been destroyed by lightening. In order to earn money for the construction of a new house, Petro leaves the village to work as a lumberjack far away in the mountains. During his absence, Marijka is seduced by the young neighbour Danilo who is supposed to help Petro with the building of the new house. Petro’s illiterate mother has a letter written to her son, informing him of Marijka’s infidelity. Soon Petro returns home to deal with Marijka’s and Danilo’s betrayal.
Strongly influenced by Soviet avant-garde filmmaking, Vančura stands out for his holistic creative approach to “Marijka the Unfaithful”, whose key stylistic element – the authenticity of setting and characters – was achieved by shooting almost entirely on location and casting mainly locals speaking their own languages (i.e. Czech, German, Rusyn, Yiddish). Thus, the film represents a courageous attempt to draw a realistic picture of the region’s complex social, religious and ethnic relationships in the 1930s. However, Vančura, who was executed in 1942 as a member of the anti-fascist movement, failed to leave a mark on the Czech film production of his time. Only thirty years later, his work and style were rediscovered by Czech filmmakers.
The new bilingual DVD edition features “Marijka the Unfaithful” in a special version, taken from the original negative as well as extensive bonus material such as commentaries, biographies, filmographies, contemporary documentation and also three topically related short films. Shortly after its release, the skilfully compiled DVD received an award in the category “Best rediscovery of a forgotten film” at this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato film festival.
www.nfa.cz/novinky/mezinarodne-ocenene-dvd-marijka-nevernice.html