Director: Jaromil Jires
Screenplay: Jaromil Jires, Ester Krumbachova and Jiri Musil, based on the novel Valerie and Her Week of Wonders by Vitezslav Nezval
Starring: Jaroslava Schallerova, Helena Anyzova, Karel Engel, Jan Klusak, Petr Kopriva
Running Time: 73 minutes
Genre: Surrealism, horror, fantasy
This virtually plotless film centres around 13 year old Valerie (Schallerova) and her surreal dreamlike adventures involving vampires, predatory priests and her mysterious family.
This is a beautiful film featuring a succession of stunning images. Virtually unclassifiable, it has elements of horror, fantasy, fairy-tales, however it makes a kind of dreamlike sense, you can see it as a girl's fears of and attraction to the adult world filtered through her subconscious, as she enters puberty. Sensual, and ethereal, it's a unique film and one that you really have to experience for yourself. It's a world where horror and beauty coexist and is full of life and energy. It's a film that some will find pretentious and wilfully obscure, but others will find it mesmerising.
