Three Seasons in Hell

1947. Postwar Prague bubbles with life and energy: the period favors sensuality and extravagance. Nineteen-year-old Ivan Heinz is the embodiment of its dreams and ideals: he leaves home and his conservative father to give himself eagerly over to a bohemian lifestyle. Self-satisfied and confrontational, the young man writes poetry and finds understanding with a like-minded, freethinking rebel named Jana. Then together the couple experience the end of hope: after February 1948, the Communist regime, which Ivan once fervently celebrated as an armchair Marxist, reveals its repressive side. The lovers refuse to conform, barely surviving on the fringes of society while planning to run away to Paris. But the clash with merciless reality soon arrives, hard and unexpected…

Director Tomáš Mašín drew inspiration from the autobiography of leftist underground poet, prose writer, and philosopher Egon Bondy. Having gained much from the director’s ex­perience creating acclaimed commercials, the artistically striking retro film took three Czech Lions: Best Camera, Sound, and Actor (Kryštof Hádek).