Moravian Hellas (1964): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1964, Moravian Hellas is a documentary film directed by Karel Vachek, running about 33 minutes.

What it’s about. Karel Vachek’s graduate film offers us a documentary essay which is both a light-hearted and aggressive little piece and also a parody of investigative film journalism. The Strážnice folk festival, backed by the cultural Party apparatus of the time, for years had little to commend itself to authentic folklore. In the film the event assumes the form of a bizarre stage spectacle with almost surrealistic elements that Vachek reinforces with unconventional approaches (commentary appearing as titles on screen, singing, declamations into the camera, feature etudes, the fusion of news coverage and fiction). The result is a stirring film collage depicting various characters, from crowd-pleasers, Easter egg decorators, kitsch artists and peddlers, to museologists and local residents, all of whom come up against the eccentric "identical” twin reporters Karel and Jan Saudek and a bored actress who appears as an extra. Using their special blend of irony and wit, they present us with the sad truth.

Who’s in it. Moravian Hellas stars Josef Lebánek, Kája Saudek as Twin A, Jan Saudek as Twin B and Alena Skokanová, among others.

How it landed. With an audience score of 5.5/10, Moravian Hellas has drawn a solid, mixed-to-positive response.

Where to watch. In US you can stream it on DocAlliance Films and rent or buy it from DocAlliance Films. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Moravian Hellas page.

If you liked it. Fans of Moravian Hellas tend to enjoy One Direction: This Is Us, Burn the Stage: The Movie, BTS World Tour: Love Yourself - Japan Edition and Senna.