Calamity

A biting parable about the moral apathy of Czechoslovak society, in which Bolek Polívka excels in his first major role as a drop-out university student who longs to pursue a career as a machinist.

Kalamita
Czechoslovakia 1980
  • English
101 min.
Přístupný
  • This film is available until 31. 12. 2025 in these territories: Czechia, Slovakia.
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About

Kalamita focuses on a young university student, Honza (Bolek Polívka), who starts working for the railway. He is not yet accustomed to the rules of his new environment and his unpreparedness makes the surrounding conformism and stereotypes stand out. In the process, he reveals the lack of capable leadership and, consequently, the dysfunctionality of the whole system. The culmination of the hero's initiation is his first train ride as an engine-driver, during which the tracks are hit by an avalanche. A higher power intervenes in the petty personal conflicts, forcing the discomforted citizens to leave their safe positions.

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Credits
Director: Věra Chytilová
Screenplay: Josef Šilhavý, Věra Chytilová
Cinematography: Ivan Šlapeta
Music: Laco Déczi
Sound: Jiří Kříž
Editing: Jiří Brožek
Production Design: Bohumil Pokorný
Producer: Vladimír Vojta
Costumes: Helena Anýžová
Cast: Boleslav Polívka, Dagmar Bláhová, Jana Synková, Marie Pavlíková, Klára Emingerová, Jaroslava Kretschmerová, Zdeněk Svěrák, Václav Švorc
Links
  • This film is available until 31. 12. 2025 in these territories: Czechia, Slovakia.