Shades of Fern

1h 30m

4.6

Based on the only extensive prose work by the surrealist painter Josef Capek, Shades of Fern most resembles the philosophical fairy tales and fables of Josef’s older brother, the legendary Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek. Two young poachers, more boys than men, kill a gamekeeper when they are caught illegally hunting. Panicked, they retreat into a forest that grows steadily more forbidding and deadly as their fear for the future—and guilt over their action—mounts. Loosely based on hundreds of oral folk tales and legends that haunt the woods of Czechoslovakia, Vlácil’s contemporary updating artistically underscores the relationship between man and nature, crime and punishment, isolation and society, and guilt and memory.

Cast

Zbigniew Suszyński

Miroslav Macháček

Keeper / Vagabond / Beggar

František Peterka

Vladimír Hlavatý

Milada Ježková

Marta Vančurová

Jana Švandová

Jiří Schmitzer

Zdeňka Sajfertová

Vítězslav Jandák

Frantisek Stupka

Jaroslav Špáňa

Karel Vávrovec

Dobroslav Čech

Zdeněk Podhůrský

Jitka Asterová

Martina Bezoušková

Vlastimil Drbal

Karel Bělohradský

Slávka Hamouzová

Vlastimila Vlková

Jaroslav Materna

Vojtěch Říha

Jaroslav Šprunk

František Trnka

František Zikán

Crew

Zuzana Máchová

František Vláčil

Director, Screenplay

Vladimír Körner

Miroslav Hájek

Magda Hájková

Assistant Editor

František Uldrich

Director of Photography

First Assistant Director

Assistant Director

Miroslav Čvorsjuk

Assistant Director

Jaromír Švarc

Production Design

Jiří Ondráček

Camera Operator

Theodor Pištěk

František Havlíček

Blanka Haltufová

František Fabián

Jiří F. Svoboda

Original Music Composer

Vladimír Ježek

Still Photographer

Eliška Vojtová

Script Supervisor

Miloslav Dvořák

Property Master

Barbora Bílková

Assistant Production Design

Vladimír Vojta

Production Manager

Creative Producer

Eva Kulhánková

Assistant Production Manager

Jarmila Benešová

Štěpán Koníček