Diamonds of the Night

Démanty noci

Director: Jan Němec
Country: Czechoslovakia

1964 | 68 min. | Czech, German
Subtitles: English, German

Cast_ Ladislav Jánsky, Antonín Kumbera, Ilse Bischofova Screenplay_ Jan Němec, Arnošt Lustig Camera_ Jaroslav Kucera, Miroslav Ondříček Rights_ Národní filmový archiv

The struggle for survival and the preservation of human dignity: Jan Němec's award-winning debut.

On their way to a concentration camp, two boys manage to escape. Pursued by German soldiers, they run through endless forests to the point of exhaustion. Ever weaker, but wildly determined, they try to survive in the foreign landscape. At the same time, they keep losing themselves in daydreams and memories. Jan Němec's debut is one of the key films of the Czechoslovak New Wave. Adapting a novel by Arnošt Lustig with a freewheeling camera, Němec shot an uncompromising work made up of ravishing black-and-white images and almost no dialogue. A film in which the brutality of the Second World War is interwoven with lyrical moments. Awarded the Grand Prize of the City of Mannheim in 1964, ›Démanty Noci‹ is now considered a classic of European cinema.
With the kind support of the Národní filmový archiv, Prague

Director

Jan Němec, born in 1936, studied at the Prague film school FAMU. He was one of the best-known directors of the New Wave and filmed the suppression of the Prague Spring. He left Czechoslovakia in 1974 and did not return until 1989.

Screenings

  • Sunday 14.11.202115:30MannheimMACinema Quadrat
  • Monday 15.11.202118:00HeidelbergHDKarlstorkino

Online Streaming

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