KRYŠTOF

"'Kryštof' is the story of a boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was looking for his place in the world," says director Zdeněk Jiráský about his film. "It's also a reminder of Action K and the ill-fated 1950s, a time when people in Czechoslovakia became prisoners of their own country." With "Action K," Klement Gottwald’s government violently cracked down on the Catholic Church; hundreds of monks were arrested, numerous monasteries were closed. Kryštof headed to the monastery mainly due to conflicts with his father and fear of the Stalinist regime. A past that he is confronted with anew on the odyssey that is set in motion after his role in helping others to escape is exposed: the difficult relationship with his father, the fear of traitors in his own ranks and how he engages with the Germans in his homeland, the aggressors of yesteryear and victims of today... It is only shortly after leaving his family and the end of the war that Kryštof finds refuge with, of all people, his father in what was once a German village – but not for long.

Text: Bernd Buder
English: Peter Rickerby

Stadthalle: original version with English subtitles + German simultaneous translation

Kammerbühne: original version with English subtitles + German simultaneous translation