Larks on a Strings

Larks on a String is a hauntingly poetic political satire by Jiří Menzel, adapted from Bohumil Hrabal’s celebrated stories. Filmed in 1969 but banned by the communist regime until 1990, this bittersweet gem unfolds in the bleak scrapyards of Kladno steelworks, where society’s so-called “bourgeois elements”—intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and even religious dissenters—are sent for forced labor under the guise of re‑education.

As the characters—ranging from a former prosecutor and a philosophy professor to a young Adventist and a barber—endure the drudgery, they forge fragile bonds, flirt clandestinely with imprisoned women, and nurture an unexpected romance between Pavel (Václav Neckář) and Jitka (Jitka Zelenohorská). The camp guard Anděl (Jaroslav Satoranský) watches over them all.

With Hrabal’s lyrical humor and Menzel’s dry wit, Larks on a String balances absurd comedy and quiet tragedy to expose the absurdities of authoritarian rule, while affirming human resilience. After two decades in obscurity, it premiered in 1990 and promptly earned the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, cementing its status as a lost masterpiece reborn.

Audiences will be drawn into its vividly realized world: a film that critiques totalitarianism with a poet’s touch and laughs in defiance of oppression.

Screening schedule