Adelheid [NTSC]

A work of the Czech New Wave film movement which emerged during the 1960s only to be brutally repressed after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, “Adelheid” is a gripping love story confronting the human dimensions of love and loyalty, and of individuals trapped in the march of history. Viktor has returned to Czechoslovakia after serving as an opposition soldier in Britain during World War II. He has been assigned to manage a confiscated German mansion in northern Moravia, along the Czech and German border, a location that allows the film to ruminate on recent history and ethnic strife. He soon falls in love with Adelheid, daughter of the former owner of the house who has been reduced to servant status. Despite the fact that she can’t speak a word of Czech and he can’t speak German, the pair develop a mute, uneasy romantic and sexual understanding. Beyond Viktor’s enamored power play and Adelheid’s inscrutable complacence, their affair is fleshed out by their mutual loneliness and shared loss. Cast includes Petr Cepek, Emma Cerna, Jan Vostrcil and Pavel Landovsky. In Czech with English subtitles.