1-World Festival of Foreign Films
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"The Joke"
1968
Directed by Jaromil Jires

Based on a novel by Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and co-scripted by the author, this dark and ironic film was shot during the Prague Spring of 1968. After sending a postcard with a humorous reference to Trotsky, a young man is sentenced to years of hard labor for the joke. Upon his release, he sets out to take revenge by seducing the wife of the Communist Party official who turned him in. Author and critic Amos Vogel called this film "possibly the most shattering indictment of totalitarianism to come out of a Communist country...a chilling examination of a corrupt society." Czech with English subtitles. 80 minutes.