- Description
One of Otakar Vávra's most famous films was based on the novel of the same name by Václav Kaplický and on the surviving court records of the witch trials from 1678-1695. Inquisitor Boblig, summoned to the town of Šumperk to investigate the transgression of a beggar woman, constructs a trial whose methods guarantee the confession of all the accused.
Suddenly, a power emerges against the decent and noble citizens, which, under the guise of cleansing the region of witches, seeks only its own enrichment, and which does not hesitate to destroy all opponents and sacrifice the lives of dozens of innocent people for this goal...
Ester Krumbachová, a prominent figure in Czech film, collaborated with Vávra on the script. Both of them enriched the script with an undisguised analogy with the political trials of the 1950s, the horror of which began to come to light in the 1960s. The film thus became, in its general form, a powerful warning against the abuse of unlimited power over people's lives...
