PILGRIMAGE TO THE MOUNTAINS
Ji.hlava / 24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
27.10.2020 - 08.11.2020
Pilgrimage to the Mountains
director: Karel Čtveráček, Karel Čtveráček
original title: Pouť krkonošská
country: Czech Republic
year: 2020
running time: 82 min.
synopsis
Art historian and theorist Jiří Zemánek and his friends set out on a nine-day pilgrimage from Prague to Sněžka, one they’ve done many times before. These modern pilgrims, inspired by the walking journey of the poet Karel Hynek Mácha, who completed the trip with Eduard Hindl in 1833, discover the beauties of the Czech landscape, read excerpts of poems and observations from Mácha's notebook, and observe a world in which untouched nature and modern civilization meet. The lyrical, meditative film, interwoven with humanism, offers an insight into the inner minds of pilgrims longing to merge with the world, highlights poetry as a tool for transforming human perception.
"And then there is no choice but to take one's meager belongings onto one’s back and set off. Jirka might read a poem on the road, perhaps from Mácha, Jeffers or Josef Hora, and our minds are open to the unknown. We already know that there is nothing to be afraid of: the path will set us straight and guide us, connect us with the landscape, with the clouds, with the starry nighttime sky. With ourselves.”
K. Čtveráček
Protagonists:
Jiří Zemánek
Vladimír Drábek
Blumfeld S. M.
Jaromír Typlt
Miloš Šejn
Miloš Šejn working inside the quarry on the Zebín hill
Ji.hlava / 24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival