葬礼(1969)

The heroine of this drama about
　　injustice during the collectivization
　　of the Czech countryside is a proud
　　widow, who arranges a magnificent
　　funeral for her recently deceased hus-
　　band. The funeral ceremony for this
　　honourable farmer who had resisted
　　the state-sanctioned liquidation of
　　farmers and landholders is transformed
　　into a manifestation of resistance
　　against the Communist overlords.
　　This story of the struggle against in-
　　justice was based on a novel by the
　　dissident writer Eva KantÛrková,
　　whose official publication was also
　　prohibited during “normalization”. Si-
　　rov˘’s best film has the outline of a
　　Classical tragedy and is framed by
　　suggestive shots of the countryside.
　　The film’s long-delayed premiere in
　　1990 was broadcast on television and
　　attended by President Václav Havel.
　　During “normalization” the director
　　Zdenek Sirov˘ (1932-1995) primarily
　　made his living doing film dubbing.
　　He did make a number of quite ordin-
　　ary adventure films and after the fall
　　of Communism he shot an adaptation
　　of the popular satire The Black Barons
　　about conditions in the Communist
　　military in the 1950s. During the final
　　years of his life, cut short by disease,
　　he was a respected teacher at Prague’s
　　Film and TV School of the Academy
　　of Performing Arts.