Witchhammer

Witchhammer (1970)

Kladivo na čarodějnice

Anyone who stands up for heretics is considered a heretic himself!

In the 1600s, an overzealous clergy hauls innocent women in front of tribunals, forces them to confess to imaginary witchery, and engages in brutal torture and persecution of their subjects.

Date of release
1970-01-23
TMDB
7.5 / 10 (80)
Runtime
1h 47m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
Otakar Vávra

Casting

Interesting facts

Witchhammer is a 1970 Czechoslovak drama film directed by Otakar Vávra and starring Elo Romančík. Based on the novel Kladivo na čarodějnice by Václav Kaplický, Witchhammer relates the story of the Northern Moravia witch trials of the 1670s, focusing on the priest Kryštof Lautner, played by Romančík, who falls victim to the witchhunt after opposing the trials. The film contains possible allegory about Communist show trials in Czechoslovakia.

Production

Director Otakar Vávra made the film in 1969. In crafting the screenplay with Ester Krumbachová, Vávra drew from Kaplický's novel and also records from the historical trials in Šumperk. Vávra was reminded of trials he had seen in the 1950s, stating that "In historical records I came upon sensible, hard-working people who fell quite unexpectedly into the clutches of the revived medieval witch trial machine".

The film was produced by Barrandov Studios. Cinematographer Josef Illík shot the film in CinemaScope. Krumbachová is also credited with writing the "soldiers' song" used in the film.

Sona Valentová revealed that the props used in the inquisition scene, including the instruments of torture, which were from the museum, had to be authentic.

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

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