Jaromil Jireš | Stopy (Footprints) / 1961

evidence

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jan Hartmann, Pavel Jurácek, Antonin Mása, and Vladimir Goldman (screenplay, pasted on a story by Jan Drda), Jaromil Jireš (director) Stopy (Footprints) / 1961

 

       Footprints is a far more inexplicable tale than either of the two earlier short Jireš films, and its narrative thrust seems quite inevitable.

      A small farm family, who illegally listen to international radio broadcasts each evening, suddenly discover a young man knocking at their door. He is a wounded Russian soldier, who is not only in danger from the Germans who are in search for him, but is near death. The son and his mother carefully nurse the young Russian back to health in their small barn.

     What none of these family members know is that the man for who they are caring has left his footprints in the snow leading up to their homestead. Moreover, a begrudging neighbor appears to be following the footsteps’ path to his neighbor’s door, followed by another German soldier, noting his findings in a small black book.

      The result of these events seem to suggest the inevitable—the arrestment of both this family and the man they are nursing back to life. But strangely, we are never quite certain of what actually happens.

       Oddly enough, the IMDb film site, briefly describes the plot in the following manner:

 

         A Russian prisoner escapes from the Germans, finding shelter with

         a Czech farmer and his family. A neighbor betrays them and is sentenced

         by the villagers.

 

      This short summary may just be badly written, but it appears to argue that the betraying neighbor is sentenced by the villagers. But we are never shown these events, and the last glimpse of the farm shows the front gate to their house broken open, with their lovely dog unchained and cowering beneath the fence. We also witness, just previous to this, the German soldiers pulling out of town, a large covered wagon among their caravan, presumably carrying their prisoners.

      We can only imagine that their neighbor’s betrayal resulted in the arrestment of everyone on the farm. But then why is the German soldier stalking the same territory with complete attention to all of the details?

       There are no answers to the truth in this film. But, at least, if the IMDb site knows something other than what were visually perceive, it may be evidence that the Czech citizens of this small village have surreptitiously taken back some of their rights, as even the naked evidence has come into doubt.

 

Los Angeles, July 2, 2020

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (July 2020).