Re:Vision: Valley of the Bees
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About
While his name lacks the recognition of other Eastern European filmmakers, writer / director / occasional actor František Vláčil could be considered among the greatest motion picture practitioners on the strength of his adaptation of Marketa Lazarová alone. Yet his follow-up, The Valley of the Bees [Údolí včel], is a similarly stunning period-piece of archetypal drama (and, like its predecessor and other works by the filmmaker, features an extraordinary score by Zdeněk Liška).
In the thirteenth century, a young man reluctantly joins the Teutonic order at the behest of his father. During his travels, he fraternizes with a former combatant of the Crusades. However, life as a member of the order is not quite as it is popularly portrayed and the young knight opts to escape. His devoutly religious friend, however, wants him to return and will see to it that he does. Nothing good can come from these disagreements. — Jonathan Marlow
For decades, The Valley of the Bees has only been available in faded prints or unsatisfactory transfers. The 2025 digital restoration was sourced from the original sound and image negatives preserved by the Národní filmový archiv in Prague.
Valley of the Bees will screen with the following short:
ATOM OF ETERNITY [ATOM VECNOSTI] (Cenek Zahradnícek and Vladimír Šmejkal, Czechoslovakia, 1934) 6m, DCP
A beautiful brevity—a tone poem, of a sort—in stark black, grey and sparingly white from Cenek Zahradnícek and Vladimír Šmejkal chronicling the oldest story of them all: two people meet, they fall for each other and then, inevitably, they’re pulled apart. — Jonathan Marlow
Digitally restored in 2025 by the Národní filmový archiv as a selection from a collection of Czechian experimental shorts of the early-1930s.
Runtime
1h 57m
Year
1968
Director
František Vláčil
Format
DCP
Country
Czechoslovakia
Language
Czech with English subtitles
First Showing
September 25, 2026
Categories
RE:VISION — FESTIVAL OF RESTORATION AND REDISCOVERY
,
Featured
In the thirteenth century, a young man reluctantly joins the Teutonic order at the behest of his father. During his travels, he fraternizes with a former combatant of the Crusades. However, life as a member of the order is not quite as it is popularly portrayed and the young knight opts to escape. His devoutly religious friend, however, wants him to return and will see to it that he does. Nothing good can come from these disagreements. — Jonathan Marlow
For decades, The Valley of the Bees has only been available in faded prints or unsatisfactory transfers. The 2025 digital restoration was sourced from the original sound and image negatives preserved by the Národní filmový archiv in Prague.
Valley of the Bees will screen with the following short:
ATOM OF ETERNITY [ATOM VECNOSTI] (Cenek Zahradnícek and Vladimír Šmejkal, Czechoslovakia, 1934) 6m, DCP
A beautiful brevity—a tone poem, of a sort—in stark black, grey and sparingly white from Cenek Zahradnícek and Vladimír Šmejkal chronicling the oldest story of them all: two people meet, they fall for each other and then, inevitably, they’re pulled apart. — Jonathan Marlow
Digitally restored in 2025 by the Národní filmový archiv as a selection from a collection of Czechian experimental shorts of the early-1930s.
Runtime
1h 57m
Year
1968
Director
František Vláčil
Format
DCP
Country
Czechoslovakia
Language
Czech with English subtitles
First Showing
September 25, 2026
Categories
RE:VISION — FESTIVAL OF RESTORATION AND REDISCOVERY
,
Featured
