Diamonds of the Night
| Diamonds of the Night | |
|---|---|
 English DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Jan Němec |
| Produced by |
Jan Procházka Erich Svabík |
| Written by |
Arnošt Lustig Jan Němec |
| Starring |
Ladislav Jánský Antonín Kumbera |
| Music by |
Vlastimil Hála Jan Rychlík |
| Cinematography | Jaromír Šofr |
| Edited by | Oldřich Bosák |
Release date |
|
Running time | 63 minutes |
| Country | Czechoslovakia |
| Language | Czech |
Diamonds of the Night (Czech: Démanty noci) is a Czech 1964 film about two boys on the run from a train taking them to a concentration camp. It was director Jan Němec's first full-length feature film.
Plot
Diamonds of the Night begins with two young men fleeing from a train taking them to a concentration camp. The film employs little dialog and the boys escape through rugged and unfamiliar terrain is interpolated with dreams, memories, hallucinations, fantasies, and flashbacks. They encounter a woman on a farm and one boy struggles with thoughts of murder and rape before silently taking a loaf of bread from the woman's kitchen and leaving. Eventually, the boys are caught by members of a local shooting party. The men prepare to execute the boys, but simply laugh as they walk away instead of executing them. The ending is ambiguous: The men either actually spared the boys, or they could be walking into the afterlife.
Cast
- Ladislav Jánsky as the 1st Boy
- Antonín Kumbera as the 2nd Boy
- Ilse Bischofova as the woman