Bulgarian director Rangel Valčanov found himself in hot water in his homeland upon the release of the Bulgarian-Czechoslovak co-production Ezop (Aesop, 1969), a dramatised parable about the need for freedom. Somewhat paradoxically he then moved on to Czechoslovakia to make two films with Czech actors during the “normalisation” period: Tvář pod maskou (The Masked Face, 1970) and Šance (Chance, 1971). However, his eclectic film Ezop was not seen in Czech cinemas until 1990. The script is a stylised “biography” of the ancient fabulist – a slave who, in Valčanov’s interpretation, openly opposes the iniquities of his masters. The vital and witty slave yearns for freedom, embodied by the beautiful slave girl Rhodopis. Unfortunately she is the property of the powerful Amazise, who acts to ensure Aesop’s removal... The film’s cameraman is Andrei Barla, the music is the work of Zdeněk Liška and Ester Krumbachová designed the costumes. Several roles were played by Czech actors.
The location is the Island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, the time approximately 600 BC. At the market, captives from Phryigia are being sold into slavery. The beautiful Rhodopis would prefer to take her own life, but her former slave Asarakos, known as Aesop, reassures her. The army commander Polyphemus is the first to purchase the girl. Next she becomes a slave to the poetess Sappho, who gives her to the Egyptian pharaoh Amasis. The proud Delphic priest Kobon examines Aesop's teeth before buying him and Aesop bites his finger appart, for which he gets a whipping. Aesop is extremely witty and mischievous and comments on each situation in which he finds himself with a fable warning of the dangers of the loss of freedom and democracy. At a festivity organized by Sappho, he secretly eavesdrops on a poetry reading and, enchanted, forgets he is a slave. At night, he gets together with Rhodopis, who openly flirts with the enamoured man. The jealous Amasis takes his mistress and slave Rhodopis away to Egypt. Aesop longs to win his freedom in order to be able to join his beloved, but he finds himself a victim of power games among the emperors of his era. He wins the freedom that he has longed for, but Kobon has not forgotten his revenge. He plants a golden goblet among Aesop's belongings and sentences him to death for theft. Not a single person who has benefited from his native wit, including Rhodopis, pleads in favour of him, and Aesop is hurled down a cliff.
The first copy of the film was produced on the 17th of May 1969. The film did not win official approval in Czechoslovakia, it was not distributed and was first shown only in 1990. In Bulgaria, its première took place on the 16th of June 1970.
Voice by Soběslav Sejk
otrok a bajkař Asarakos zvaný Ezop
diktátor Polyfimos
velekněz Kobon
Voice by Milena Dvorská
princezna, později otrokyně Rhodopis
Voice by Slávka Budínová
básnířka Sapfó
lýdský vladař Krésos
faraon Amazis
obchodník s otroky
prodavač papoušků
filozof Xanthos
Kasandra, Xanthova žena
Voice by Vladimír Stach
Krésův první vyslanec
Voice by Jan Schánilec
obchodník s otroky
strážný
člen chóru
Voice by Mirko Musil
věštec
Voice by Karel Pavlík
Trimat, Krésův druhý vyslanec
dívka z družiny Sapfó
dívka z družiny Sapfó
delfský důstojník
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
tanečnice
důstojník
hlas Xanthova žáka
hlas občana Sámosu
hlas občana Sámosu
hlas občana Sámosu
hlas občana Sámosu
hlas občana Sámosu
Tomáš Kulík, Petr Batalov
Rajna Jončeva, Marta Křesinová
Rangel Valčanov, Anžel Vagenštajn
Miroslav Fára, Karel Kočí, Vladimir Odžakov
Jaromír Svoboda, Emil Pavlov, Lubomír Zajíc (česká verze)
Jan Syrový, Dana Dudová
Milena Andrejsková
Zorka Chrastinová (klapka), Alena Červená (fotografka)
FISYO (Music Conducted by František Belfín), Kühnův smíšený sbor (Music Conducted by Pavel KühnMarkéta Kühnová)
Ezop
Ezop
Aesop
Ezop
film
featuretheatrical distribution
allegory
Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria
1969
1968
literary Screenplay approved 25 January 1968
start of filming 16 July 1968
end of filming 5 December 1968
the first film copy approved 27 May 1969
projection approval 7 September 1969 (neschváleno do distribuce)
the first film copy approved 7 September 1969
withdrawal from distribution 1 July 1993
premiere abroad 26 June 1970 (Sofia, Bulharsko)
premiere 1 April 1990 /unsuitable for youths/
Tvůrčí skupina Feix – Brož, Miloš Brož (vedoucí dramaturg tvůrčí skupiny), Karel Feix (vedoucí výroby tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
93 min
2 650 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:2,35
colour
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech