CIFF47: PSQ March 22 – April 1, 2023 | Streams April 2 – April 9, 2023

A FORGOTTEN LIGHT
(Zapomenute Svetlo)

Year: 1996
Country: Czech Republic
Run Time: 100 minutes

For Father Holy, being a parish priest in the communist Czechoslovakia of the 1980s means tolerating an unholy alliance, the cold detente between the nation's Catholic bureacracy and an officially atheist regime, both determined to survive the changing times and hang onto their respective disciples. Father Holy is well aware of these momentous issues, but for now the pragmatic priest's goal is to restore his decaying Baroque church, a church threatened with closure by local government authorities. Father Holy has a few allies: a sculptor similarly wronged by the communists, a disenfranchised Count reduced to driving an ambulance, and a young housefie whom Holy has secretly, chastely, adored for years. Armed with his wits, a sly sense of humor, prodigious drinking skills and a quiet courage derived partially from faith, partially from stubbornness, Father Holy challenges both ecclesiastical and Marxist hierarchies. Based on the fictionalized memoirs of an actual Eastern European clergyman, A FORGOTTEN LIGHT is a funny, romantic and spiritual drama with its own melancholy state of grace.

Screenplay
Milena Jelinek (based on the book by Jakub Deml)

Director
Vladimir Michalek

Cinematography
Martin Duba

Editing
Ivana Kacirkova

Principal Cast
Boleslav Polivka, Veroniko Zilkova, Petr Kavan, Jiri Pecha, Antonim Kinsky, Simona Pekova

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