The Valley of the Bees

The Valley of the Bees (1968)

Údolí včel

Cast out by his father, young Ondrej joins the Order of the Teutonic Knights, where he is raised by strict monk Armin. After years of hardship, Ondrej escapes from the Order when he is wrongly punished, and sets out for his former home. Arriving to discover his father to be dead, Ondrej now not only assumes control of his father's properties, but seeks to marry his former stepmother.

Date of release
1968-05-17
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (52)
Runtime
1h 41m
Genres
Drama, History
Director
František Vláčil

Casting

Interesting facts

The Valley of the Bees is a 1968 Czechoslovak historical drama film directed by František Vláčil. The film follows a young man Ondřej who's sent to join the Teutonic order by his father. When he flees the order and returns home, his friend Armin is determined to bring him back.

Production

The film was produced after Vláčil's previous film Marketa Lazarová. Marketa was very expensive and it was decided to make another film set in Middle Ages so the sets and costumes could be re-used. However by the time production started the sets from Marketa Lazarová were already destroyed. The screenplay was written by Vláčil and Vladimír Körner.

The film was eventually shot at Kuklov monastery ruins near Brloh. The Teutonic order scenes were shot at Czech castles Karlštejn and Rabí and Polish castles Malborg and Lidzbark Warmiński. Theodor Pištěk designed the costumes for the film. Vláčil was inspired by historical movies of Ingmar Bergman and Robert Bresson.

Jan Kačer was originally supposed to play both Armin and Ondřej. It proved to be technically impossible so Kačer suggested Petr Čepek for the role of Ondřej. The director demanded that ascetic knight Armin needs to be slim, so Kačer was forced to lose 11 kilograms for the role. The film was shot from July to October 1967. Post-production ended in December 1967. The final budget was 4 379 000 Kčs.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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