Diamonds of the Night is a Czech

Cinema of the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic was a seedbed for many acclaimed film directors.Three Czech/Czechoslovak movies that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film were The Shop on Main Street by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos in 1965, Closely Watched Trains by Jiří Menzel in 1967 and...

 1964 film about two boys on the run from a train taking them to a concentration camp. It was director Jan Němec

Jan Nemec

Jan Němec is a Czech filmmaker whose most important work dates from the 1960s. Film historian Peter Hames has described him as the "enfant terrible of the Czech New Wave."- Biography :...

's first full-length feature film.

Plot

Diamonds of the Night begins with two young men fleeing from a train and hiding in the woods. Through the course of their journey, flashbacks shed light on their past; the boys are fleeing from a Nazi train on its way to a concentration camp. During their escape, they encounter a woman on a farm. 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 a local militia group for stealing the bread. 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
• Irma Bischofova as the woman