Silná pěst

Petr Obdržálek / Czechoslovakia / 1965 / The film already had its Czech Premiere / 7 min.

synopsis

This portrayal of the lives of modern-day cowboys – labourers at pastoral cooperatives in the Šumava borderlands – emphasises their loneliness and the tedium of their monotonous, repetitive tasks in an isolated location, where the only entertainment are card games, the guitar, radio or the occasional letter delivered by border guards. The attempts to capture ambient sounds have a modern feel, though the herdsman’s narration is recorded in post-synchronisation. A formal highlight is the romanticised widescreen stylisation of the imagery (a first at FAMU) together with the melody of the song Riders in the Sky, reminiscent of American Westerns or J. Polák’s Czech film Death in the Saddle (1958). The superb work of lifelong friends – cinematographers J. Franta and I. Šlapeta – is also evident in the panoramic shots of the objects on the floor and on the walls of the barracks. The work is a documentary exercise by second-year students of the Department of Film and Television Journalism.

biography

Petr Obdržálek (1941–2025) graduated from FAMU in 1965 and specialised in production and documentary filmmaking. He worked mainly for Czechoslovak (and later Czech) Television, where he produced and directed programmes such as Kalendárium (Calendar) and Malý televizní kabaret (A Little Television Cabaret).