The Cremator

Director: Juraj Herz

1969 / 100min / DCP

A rising political death cult entangles with personal morbidity in Herz’s deeply disturbing black comic parable, set in 1930s Prague, where Nazi ideology hangs in the air as thick as the charnel fumes over the crematorium run by the troubled Karel Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrušínský, in a skin-crawling performance). Adapting Ladislav Fuks’s novel with the author and utilizing the estimable talents of cinematographer Stanislav Milota, Herz connects the Czechoslovak New Wave groundswell to the legacy of German Expressionism in this macabre and harrowing work of psychological and social breakdown, banned after its 1969 debut only to re-emerge and garner deserved praise as a masterwork 20 years later, after the crumbling of the Czechoslovak communist system.

“Herz’s The Cremator is a horrible and wickedly funny political satire of the rise of fascism in Czechia right before WWII. One of the pearls of the Czechoslovak New Wave, it’s a great demonstration of how humor can be a weapon against fascism.”—Ena Sendijarević

This restoration of The Cremator was made possible by a donation from Mrs. Milada Kučerová and Mr. Eduard Kučera and was realized by Karlovy Vary IFF at the studios of UPP and Soundsquare, in cooperation with the Národní filmový archiv in Prague and the Czech Film Fund.