Distant Journey

Czechoslovakia 1949 /104 min. / DCP

Director: Alfréd Radok / Screenplay: Mojmír Drvota, Erik Kolár, Alfréd Radok / Director of Photography: Josef Střecha / Set Designer: Jan Pacák / Editor: Jiřina Lukešová / Sound Designer:  Josef Vlček / Music: Jiří Sternwald / Cast: Blanka Waleská, Otomar Krejča, Viktor Očásek, Zdeňka Baldová 

Alfréd Radok’s debut still gives a unique answer to the question of how to express the inexpressible. The film does not translate the horror of the Terezín prison directly, but through a comparison of the different visions that shaped the realities of the Holocaust. The multilayered art report therefore combines a melodramatic story, echoes of expressionism and a self-reflective play with documentary and fiction.

The goal of this digital restoration was to make the film available in a form similar to how audiences would have seen it at the time of its initial release in 1949. As a result, we have preserved various visual elements that originated during the film’s shooting process or its laboratory processing, as evidence of the technologies and creative approaches of the time.