Coach to Vienna
From Sun 08 to Fri 13 SepNear the end of World War II, a pair of Austrian soldiers fleeing the Russian front force a steely Czech woman (Iva Janzurová) to accompany them through a mist-shrouded forest back to Vienna. Little do they know that the woman they are holding at gunpoint is the grieving widow of a man killed by Nazis just that week and is hell-bent on vengeance, packing an ax hidden beneath her horse cart. Such is the setup for this atmospheric thriller—featuring costumes by Krumbachová—which begins as a tense revenge tale and gradually morphs into a harrowing human drama about the extremes to which war drives ordinary people.
Introduction
The Screening on 8 September will be introduced by Peter Hames, author of Czech and Slovak Cinema: Theme and Tradition (Edinburgh University Press, 2010)
About Peter Hames
Peter Hames is author of The Czechoslovak New Wave and editor of The Cinema of Central Europe and The Cinema of Jan Švankmajer. He has collaborated on many Blu -ray releases with Second Run and has curated and co-organised film seasons at BFI Southbank and Riverside Studios. He has also served on film juries in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Russia.
See also