Duaan Hanak’s romantic and lyrical film tells of the romance between Jakub, a young Slovak boy (Juraj Nvota) and Jolanka, a Roma girl (Iva Bittova). As the village postman, Jakub provides one of the few links between two communities who live in a state of mutual suspicion. While Hanak found a ‘humanist’ form acceptable to the post-invasion authorities, scenes within the Roma community nonetheless confront the problems of poverty and resettlement. The film demonstrates a flair for fantasy and the absurd, often juxtaposing different realities in its use of sound and image, and is given great emotional force through the clever adaptation of Roma music, foregrounding the positive aspects of Roma culture.
Czechoslovakia [Slovakia], 1976. English subtitles. Colour. 85 min.