Veteran director Karel Kachyňa’s 1990 war drama set in a Nazi-controlled Jewish ghetto was filmed according to a screenplay penned by Ota Hofman. Central to this motion picture – a Czechoslovak coproduction with France and Great Britain, with an international cast – is the French mime Moreau, who is forced by the Nazis to stage a theatrical performance with child inmates. Their performance is to be presented to a commission of the Red Cross as proof of the supposedly humane conditions prevailing in the ghetto. But the artist decides to conceive his fairytale rendition of Hans and Gretel as a true testimony of the camp’s brutal and shocking reality… Tom Courtenay shines in the leading role, while another British actor, Freddie Jones, is impressive as piano player Rheinberg. This moving story was inspired by the first performances of the children’s opera Brundibár. They took place in the Terezín ghetto from September 1943 to the autumn of 1944, with a special performance arranged for visiting Red Cross inspectors.
It is the Second World War. The famous pantomimer Antoine Moreau performs in a cabaret in German-occupied Paris. Nazi officers are in the audience, too. Antoine is jealous of his young lover, the dancer Mich?le. He even follows her on her reported way to a dressmaker and has a fight with a man with whom the girl secretly meets. But it is in fact her brother who - like Mich?le - is a member of the underground resistance. The girl, however, dies soon afterwards, falling from a cornice during her escape from the Gestapo. Moreau is arrested and, after a brutal interrogation, an SS officer offers him freedom in exchange for performing for Jewish children in the ghetto. The mime is taken to an enclosed town where the Nazis imitate a kind of a game on normality: a hotel, a bank, a coffee shop - everything is there but nothing is really working. The children steal Antoine's suitcase with his props. In the hotel cellar, a symphony orchestra conducted by Karel Rheinberg from Vienna rehearses. The orchestra has an excellent cast - there are top Jewish musicians from all over Europe. Commander Gruber is waiting for the arrival of the International Red Cross' committee, which should be shown rich cultural activities in the ghetto. Antoine is severely beaten on the street by young SS members. He, however, seems suspicious even to the prisoners, for he is not even a Jew. A pretty children's educator, Věra, makes the little girl Stella return the stolen things to the mime artist. Gruber plays with Antoine as a cat with a mouse: he apologizes for the accident but at the same time orders him to stage the Brothers Grimm's fairy-tale Hansel and Gretel. Antoine is provided with a theatre hall and two musicians: the violin virtuoso Standler and a piano player called Rheinberg. The children who Antoine selects as actors are saved from being transported. Especially talented amongst them is Stella who platonically loves Antoine and can hardly bear that he and Věra have fallen in love. Antoine says goodbye to the departing transport by his famous pantomime about a dying and resurrected butterfly. The wild Stella breaks various restrictions and is punished by being included in the next batch for transport. Antoine saves her, claiming that her presence in the performance is crucial. Gruber thus sends another child on the transport instead of her. Before the committee's arrival, the commander supervises part of the performance but he does not see the end where Antoine inserted information for the shocked guests about the reality - the fairy-tale witch throws flocks of children to a furnace. When the delegation members want to talk to Antoine during the closing banquet, the commander claims that he has already returned to Paris. But he and Věra, as well as the participating children, have, in fact, already been prepared for the next transport. Before boarding the train, Antoine amuses everybody for the last time, lampooning the Nazi greeting - heiling. People being sent to their deaths recall happy moments of their previous lives.
Voice by Václav Postránecký
mim Antoine Moreau
Voice by Dana Syslová
vychovatelka Věra
Voice by Taťjana Medvecká
Michèle, vlastním jménem Suzanne de la Croix
Voice by Soběslav Sejk
dirigent a klavírista Karl Rheinberg
velitel tábora Gruber
houslista Leo Stadler
Stadlerova žena
Silberstein, člen rady starších
Petersen, člen rady starších
vrátný Wilhelm Laub
JUDr. Leroux
hudebník Steiner
zpěvačka v ghettu
sekretářka Kellerová
dívka Stella
Voice by Jan Kalous
chlapec Samuel
dívka Heda
dívka Ester
chlapec Otto
Liana
Ikarus
učitel
příslušník SS, Gruberův pobočník
majitel kina
Jeanette
mladý vězeň, klavírista
židovský četník
židovský četník
francouzský odbojář, přítel Michél
pokladník v ghettu
velitel gestapa
Voice by Jaroslav Horák
gestapák
vězeň
radující se stará vězeňkyně
radující se stará vězeňkyně
chlapec
příslušník SS
vězeňkyně
vězeň u žebříku
důstojník SS
číšník v ghettu
ředitel varieté
herečka ve varieté
herec ve varieté
mladá vězenkyně
gestapák
servírka v ghettu
inspicient
delegát Červeného kříže
delegát Červeného kříže
zatčený cukrář
holčička loupající brambory
matka Stelly
otec Stelly
manželka Grubera
hudebník
hudebník
hudebník
hudebník
Michal Herz, Jana Jiříčková, Jana Kůtková, Jiří Moravčík
Michael Jacot (Terezínské děti /Les enfants de Terezin/ – román)
František Kučera, Brigitte Barbier
Milan Bábik, Miroslav Buberle, Vladimír Ježek, Jindřich Rada, Karel Vaňásek
Jiří Šimon, Edith Remy, Vlasta Maléřová, Věra Podpěrová, Daniel Brož, Dana Hubáčková
Patrick Dromgoole, Johnny Goodman
Caroline Schweich, Boudjemaa Dahmane, Jacques Méthé
Luboš Kozák, Luděk Blažek, Martin Kuk, Antonín Pražský, Lev Veltrubský
Vladimír Seiml, Hana Svěráková, Vladimír Švestka
MUDr. Erich Springer
Miloš Schmiedberger (fotograf), Jiří Gemrot, Jan Vít, Drahomír Hubálek
Jacques Offenbach (Orfeus v podsvětí), Ferenc Liszt (Preludia /Les Préludes/), František Kmoch (Česká muzika), Karel Vacek (Skřivánek zpíval), Henry Purcell (Gordický uzel)
Ivan Ženatý, FISYO (Music Conducted by Štěpán Koníček), Jazzfonický orchestr (Music Conducted by Stanislav Lerch), Staročeská muzika
Song Composer Jiří Šust
Writer of Lyrics Pavel Kopta
Singer Hana Hegerová
Song Composer Etienne Nicolas Méhul
Song Composer Sylver Victor Cassot
Writer of Lyrics Jacques Larug
Song Composer Alex North
Writer of Lyrics Mark Princi
Song Composer tradicionál
Singer Brigitte Fossey
Poslední motýl
Poslední motýl
The Last Butterfly
La dernier papillon
film
featuretheatrical distribution
tragedy
Czechoslovakia, France
1990
1990
withdrawal from distribution 31 July 1993
premiere 1 January 1991 /unsuitable for youths/
2. tvůrčí skupina, Josef Císař (vedoucí 2. tvůrčí skupiny), Ivana Dortová (vedoucí produkce 2. tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
111 min
2 570 meters
35mm
1:1,37
colour
sound
Dolby Stereo
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech
Event: Prémie Českého literárního fondu v oblasti filmové tvorby za rok 1989
1990
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Ester Krumbachová
Event: Prémie Českého literárního fondu v oblasti filmové tvorby za rok 1989
1990
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Jiří Krejčík ml.
Event: Prémie Českého literárního fondu v oblasti filmové tvorby za rok 1989
1990
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Michal Krška
Event: Prémie Českého literárního fondu v oblasti filmové tvorby za rok 1989
1990
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Jan Kropáček
Event: Prémie Českého literárního fondu v oblasti filmové tvorby za rok 1989
1990
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Zbyněk Hloch
Event: Prémie Českého literárního fondu v oblasti filmové tvorby za rok 1989
1990
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Šárka Hejnová