In the immediate post-war context, Čapek's novel has received a distinct update: an extremely destructive explosive in the hands of warmongers interested only in profit can easily become a fatal detonator, threatening the whole world.
Director Otakar Vávra focuses on the feverish imaginings of the exhausted and wounded protagonist, engineer Prokop, who tried his best to prevent the misuse of his invention. Although narratively (the dreamlike sequences that bring the hero's disturbed perception closer to life reveal an inspiration from gloomy French poeticism) the film has aged, its narrative still retains its urgency...
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