Based on the only extensive prose work by the surrealist painter Josef Capek, Shades of Fern most resembles the philosophical fairy tales and fables of Josef’s older brother, the legendary Czech novelist and playwright Karel Capek. Two young poachers, more boys than men, kill a gamekeeper when they are caught illegally hunting. Panicked, they retreat into a forest that grows steadily more forbidding and deadly as their fear for the future—and guilt over their action—mounts. Loosely based on hundreds of oral folk tales and legends that haunt the woods of Czechoslovakia, Vlácil’s contemporary updating artistically underscores the relationship between man and nature, crime and punishment, isolation and society, and guilt and memory.

Directed by: František Vláčil
Written by: František Vláčil & Vladimír Körner
Release date: 1986-01-01
Runtime: 90 minutes
Cast:
Marek Probosz Marek Probosz
Ruda Aksamit 
Zbigniew Suszyński Zbigniew Suszyński
Vašek Kala 
Miroslav Macháček Miroslav Macháček
Keeper / Vagabond / Beggar 
František Peterka František Peterka
Father Aksamit 
Vladimír Hlavatý Vladimír Hlavatý
Čepelka 
Milada Ježková Milada Ježková
Čepelková 
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Also known as:
  • Shades of Fern