Larks on a String

Filmed in 1969, but banned by the Czech government and only seeing a release in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime, (whereupon it was declared a lost masterpiece) Larks on a String is a hymn to humanity and nonconformity. Menzel’s wry comic drama centres on the male and female residents of a state-run junkyard / labour camp for those whose actions have been deemed ‘counter-revolutionary’. Separately, the two groups lazily toil, sorting out piles of scrap metal; together, they flirt, philosophize, and occasionally sneak off to make love. Larks on a String is at once a stinging indictment of the repressive politics of Czechoslovakia’s past, and an endearingly comic and affecting love story.

£11.99