Directed by:
Vladimír ČechCinematography:
Václav HuňkaComposer:
Štěpán LuckýCast:
František Vicena, Wilhelm Koch-Hooge, Zdeněk Kampf, Vlasta Vlasáková, Eva Jiroušková, Oldřich Velen, Jürgen Frohriep, Miloslav Holub, Jindřich Narenta (more)Plots(1)
Biographical drama The Key is the first film that fully complies with the demands of the Normalisation period which started setting in at the time. A film about communist official and anti-Nazi resistance fighter Jan Zika shamelessly manipulates facts, promoting Communist ideology and foisting the idea of Soviet Union's indispensability. Luckily, Čech's film is an exceptionally boring debacle. (Summer Film School)
(more)Reviews (1)
The Key is of such a caliber for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party that the staff has already been to Moscow. "And this is Red Square, it's beautiful because it's old. And this is the Kremlin. And here Lenin was loved by Western journalists." Although it is a work of rigid normalization, I don't particularly have a problem with it. As a drama, it works well (in the context of the time, of course), and the casting is international, so the subtitled scenes make some sense. Of course, it can't be broadcast much today, but if Vávra's normalization series has its defenders, then Čech's implementation of a film to order could and should too.
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