During our Frantisek Vlácil tribute last August, many people were turned away from the sold-out screening of Markéta Lazarová, so we take this opportunity to present this beautiful film again. Set in the thirteenth century at a time of transition from tribal to state (and church) law, the film plays out a parallel between barbarism and “civilized” brutality. But if historical themes provided a way in which controversial ideas could be smuggled onto the screen, they had their own artistic raison d'être as well. Filmed under treacherous conditions in the mountains of southern Bohemia, Markéta Lazarová recreates its medieval milieu with a dazzling visual sensibility and uncanny realism, both physical and psychological. The story is one of rivalry and revenge between a clan of brutal robbers and the family of a thieving squire. A liaison between the squire's daughter and the demonic clan's son has ominous consequences. Vlácil creates a narrative that is more poetic than it is linear, like a dream of an ancient age.