Based on a theme by Jan Procházka, director Karel Kachyňa made an intimate story from the last days of the Second World War in 1966. The central character is a desperate country woman whose husband has been hanged by the Germans and whose fate has brought her into the hands of a young soldier on whom she can take her revenge. The whole drama takes place during a journey through a deep forest, as a horse-drawn carriage with a woman, a soldier and his badly wounded comrade heads for the Austrian border. The woman waits for the opportunity to take revenge, but when the moment arrives, she cannot kill... Carriage to Vienna was one of the most talked about films of its time. It was denounced by some as anti-German, by others as anti-Czech, even anti-Partisan. But it is above all a film against war, against killing. "War kills mostly innocents. Who else? Did anyone else ever go to war other than those who didn't want to go to war at all? But once the killing has taken place, it has its own laws. They are reduced to the desire to survive: either I kill or I am killed. This engine of death is the main one in every war," says screenwriter Jan Procházka about his film. He wrote the role of the young woman Krista directly for Iva Janžurová, who is one of the greatest actors in Czech cinema. Her excellent partner was Jaromír Hanzlík, for whom the role of the soldier was one of his first big opportunities...
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