The White Disease

Summary

The adaptation of Karel Čapek's legendary anti-war utopian play Bílá nemoc (White Disease) was directed by Hugo Haas, who also played the lead role. Since January 1937, the play has been successful in Prague's National Theatre. Hugo Haas also played the role of Dr. Galén on stage and the cast of most of the other roles matched with the production mentioned above. It was being staged despite protests from the German side (Baron Krüg's name, resembling the German word Krieg – war, had to be renamed Krog), and already at a time of the increasing danger to the Republic it became particularly relevant for its humanist message. In this parallel of a militaristic marshal threatening a small democratic peaceful state, Čapek created an analogy to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany threatening free Czechoslovakia. At the same time, the fatal white disease that is gradually spreading all over the world and threatening everyone without exception, poor and rich equally, is a parallel to the contagion of Nazism. The cure for this disease is found by the doctor Galén, who cures poor people and wants to make the cure available only on the condition of the world peace. – Despite Karel Čapek's initial disapproval, the director adds the character of Dr. Martin, a doctor from a small neighbouring state under threat, who is the only one who knows the secret of his cure after Galén's death, which changes the initially pessimistic ending; the hope of rescuing humankind and the nation remains. – Hugo Haas shot only in the studios (except for a documentary footage of the troops moving in) from 6 October to 1 November 1937 during twenty shooting days. For the crowd scenes he cast extras of 137 men, 20 women and 420 unemployed people. The film version premiered less than a year after the play's first production, in December 1937. After the events in Munich in 1938, when the film was immediately banned, the negative was rescued, exported abroad, and the French and English versions were produced. After the war, the original material was returned to Czechoslovakia, and with new opening credits, it was screened again on 5 April 1946 (in Kino Moskva cinema in Prague) and later on 22 August 1958 (in Kino Yalta cinema). – Both the play and the film warned about the soon-to-be events, which ultimately resulted in World War II. This achievement, unique even for international cinema, dominated by brilliant performances led by Hugo Haas and Zdeněk Štěpánek. The film can compete with Chaplin's The Dictator (1940) and several other works from the between-wars period. Footage from the shooting is captured in the short documentary The Illusion Factory (1937; directed by Jiří Weiss). – After almost eighty years, the National Film Archive brings the film back into distribution in a digitally restored version. The premiere took place at Bio Central cinema in Hradec Králové on 22 September 2016. A rare and fragile original negative on a flammable print was used to create the new version, and a duplication positive was used to transcribe the sound (for the first time since its release in the 1930s, the original opening credits have been used in the film). With financial support from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, and the partnership of the National Library of Norway and the CESNET association, the restoration was carried out in 2016 at the Magyar Filmlabor in Budapest. Upon request, the film was distributed with English subtitles. In addition to that, a short lecture and presentation of the digital restoration of the film with demonstrations can also be arranged.

Synopsis