Romeo, Juliet and Darkness

Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (Czech: Romeo, Julie a tma) is a 1960 Czech drama film directed by Jiří Weiss. Inspired by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet,^[1] the film is about problems experienced by a young Jewish woman who is hidden from the Gestapo by a student lover. In 1997 a TV adaptation of the same name was directed by Karel Smyczek.

Romeo, Juliet and Darkness
Directed by	Jiří Weiss
Written by	Jan Otčenášek Jiří Weiss
Based on	Romeo and Juliet 1597 play by William Shakespeare
Starring	Ivan Mistrík Daniela Smutná
Cinematography	Václav Hanuš
Edited by	Miloslav Hájek
Music by	Jiří Srnka
Production company	Ceskoslovenský Státní Film
Distributed by	Cinelatino
Release date	1960 (1960)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	Czechoslovakia
Language	Czech

Plot

In Nazi-occupied Prague in May 1942, Pavel (Ivan Mistrík) hides the young Jew Hanka (Daniela Smutná) to keep her from being sent to a concentration camp. Over the following three weeks the two fall in love. But when Hanka is discovered and Pavel is threatened, she flees into the streets in the middle of Operation Anthropoid—the Czech government-in-exile's plot to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich—and is killed.

Cast

• Ivan Mistrík as Pavel
• Daniela Smutná as Hanka
• Jiřina Šejbalová as Pavel's mother
• František Smolík as Grandfather
• Blanka Bohdanová as Kubiasová
• Eva Mrázová as Alena
• Karla Chadimová as Josefka
• Miroslav Svoboda as Würm

Reception

Romeo, Juliet, and Darkness won the Golden Seashell at the 1960 San Sebastian International Film Festival. It also won the Grand Prix at the 1960 Taormina International Film Festival.