Wolf Trap 1958 ( 5.2)

The title of this highly-regarded Czech drama translates as Wolf Trap. Set in the 1920s, the story revolves around an ambitious young provincial politician (Miroslav Dolozai) who enters into a marriage of convenience with a smotheringly possessive -- and much older -- woman (Jirina Sejbavola). Hoping to temporarily escape his overbearing wife's clutches, the husband strikes up a friendship with her young ward (Jana Brejchova). The relationship blossoms into a deep abiding love, but the jellyfish husband can't bring himself to declare his ardor to the girl. Even after the death of the wife, the husband hasn't the intestinal fortitude to admit his passion, and the results are bleak indeed for the unfortunate ward. Director Jiri Weiss does a masterful job staging his story of frustration and denial against a backdrop of post-WWI bourgeois banality.

Advent 1957 ( 6)

A ballad story from the life of the inhabitants of the Moravian Beskydy Mountains. The heroine is a young woman, Františka Plesníková. Františka's lover was killed by a falling tree before he could marry her, and the girl faced the bitter fate of a "roll" of illegitimate mother. Františka fought with all her might for a better life for her son Metúdek. For his sake, she eventually married an old widower farmer, Podešva. However, she soon realized that her marriage had not benefited either herself or her child.

Roky v kruhu – Jaro 1967