Distant Journey

press release: New Restorations

Czechoslovakia | 1949 | DCP | 103 min. | Czech and German with English subtitles

Director: Alfréd Radok; Cast: Blanka Waleská, Otomar Krejča, Viktor Ocásek

One of the first films to confront the horrors of the Holocaust remains one of the most powerful. Distant Journey draws from director and Holocaust survivor Alfréd Radok’s own experiences to tell the story of a Czechoslovak Jewish family—including a young doctor and her gentile husband—whose lives are torn apart by the terrors of the Nazi occupation, leading them inexorably to a grim fight for survival in a concentration camp. Blending expressionistic cinematography with archival documentary footage to potent effect, this harrowing vision of human atrocity was banned in Czechoslovakia for more than forty years.

Screenings mostly take place at 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue. Once-a-month Sunday afternoon screenings take place at the Chazen Museum of Art, 750 University Avenue. In accord with current UW Madison policies, masks are required for entry to our venues. All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions from September 3 through December 18.

In addition to new copies of several restored movies showcased in our other series, Fall Cinematheque calendar is robust with one-off screenings of new digital preservations of several exciting titles from throughout international cinema history, including Luis Buñuel’s pitch-black satire The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz; Melvin Van Peebles’ produced-in-France debut feature The Story of a Three Day Pass; Jean-Louis Roy’s Swiss Cold War oddity, The Unknown Man of Shandigor; and two featurettes by one of Senegal’s leading cinematic voices, Djibril Diop Mambety.