Catalogue of Czech Television Programmes
A narrative drama about the power of love, about people in extreme situation, and about thirst for freedom. It is devoted to all survivors of the holocaust. Arnošt Lustig, a world-renowned writer nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, was one of them. His novella Colette is based on his personal experience of a concentration camp prisoner and witness of few attempted escapes from the hell of Auchswitz. The protagonists of the story, unfolding in the Auchswitz concentration camp, are Colette, a Jewish girl from Belgium, and Czech Jew Vili. Only their secret love helps them to survive the everyday horrors of the camp, where anything that can save life or at least postpone death for a while is an object of trading. Vili is caught smuggling, injured, thanks to the solidarity of the prisoners secretly operated on in the prison hospital and then nursed by Colette. She, too, has to make sacrifices, and in order to survive is forced to succumb to fanatic SS officer Weisacker. Luckily neither Colette nor Vili take part in the prisoners´ planned escape, and their lives are spared. But for how long? The front is approaching, Vili sets out on the death march, and Colette flees with the transport to Sachsenhausen. Will they ever meet again?
HD | 120´ | © 2013
director(s): Milan Cieslar
producer(s): Czech Television, Happy Celluloid, WANDAL Production, Barrandov Studio, UPP, RTVS
scriptwriter(s): Milan Cieslar
director of photography: Marek Jícha
cast: Clemence Thioly, Jiří Mádl, Eric Bouwer, Andrej Hryc, Zuzana Mauréry, Helena Dvořáková, Ondřej Vetchý, Michal Dlouhý, Miroslav Táborský, David Suchařípa and others
rights available: TV, Video, Internet
original language: Czech, English
other data: Awards: XII International War Movie Festival by Yu.N.Ozerov - Sevastopol 2014 - Main Prize for the best artistic film