She Grazed Horses on Concrete
Encyclopedia
She Grazed Horses on Concrete (Pásla kone na betóne) is a film which lays out serious topics that include a woman's capacity to hold her own in society, sexual mores, and abortion, and balances them with comedy and irony in proportions that instantly made it one of the biggest domestic blockbusters in Slovak cinema
.
A quarter of a century later, its DVD release sold out within weeks. The film, directed by the reputed Štefan Uher
, made the women at its center stage stand for humankind as matter-of-factly as much of Central Europe
an filmmaking had been portraying men's worlds, the quiet turnaround never even became a talking point. It was also the first film that employed a regional variety of the language that would be naturally used where the story took place, which provided an additional layer of humor whose novelty had people rolling in the aisles.
Its baffling title quotes a verse from a fresh folk song about a woman striving to accomplish impossible feats. Attempts to render it in English resulted in the film being shown and quoted under a range of titles that have included She Kept Crying for the Moon, She Kept Asking for the Moon, A Ticket to Heaven (also the erroneous A Ticket to the Heaven), and Concrete Pastures.
Johanka, prodded by her also-single friend Jozefka (Marie Logojdová) who maintains that a woman without a man is nothing, begins to woo the new teacher Jarek (Jiří Klepl) only to discover later that he is married. Paulína, in the meantime, loses her virginity to the soldier Jirka (Ivan Klečka) who promptly makes himself scarce. Johanka fails to consider that she actually has a better life than some of her married neighbors, begins to see abortion or marriage as Paulína's only options, and places personals on her behalf. Although Štefan (Ľubomír Paulovič), one of the men who respond, turns out to be less than ideal, Paulína falls for him.
As Štefan's car breaks down on the way to the elaborate wedding party and the cake adorned with a doll he is bringing begins to melt in the heat, Paulína, in her wedding dress and tipsy before the ceremony, suffers miscarriage, perhaps as a result of Johanka's earlier attempt to induce abortion that would look as if it occurred spontaneously. The car that carries Paulína to the hospital passes Štefan's car towed by a farm tractor, but none of the involved notice.
(1930, Prievidza
− 1993, Bratislava
) graduated from the FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague
in 1955. Among his fellow students were future directors Martin Hollý Jr.
and Peter Solan
who also began to work at the Koliba film studios (then called the Feature Film Studio and the Short Film Studio) in Bratislava
after graduation. Uher first worked in the short film division. His second feature film
, The Sun in a Net
is still recognized as a milestone in the development of Slovak
and Czech
cinema. Milka Zimková acted in his three previous films. The cameraman of She Grazed Horses on Concrete, Stanislav Szomolányi, later professor of cinematography at the University of Performing Arts, Bratislava, made nine other films with Uher.
) collection of short stories She Grazed Horses on Concrete (Pásla kone na betóne, 1980) was an instant success and has been republished least six times through the 2000s. Documentary film director Fero Fenič wrote a literary-narrative screenplay on themes from the last of the fifteen stories, "A Ticket to Heaven" (Vstupenka do neba), but when he began to work with Zimková on a shooting script
, she disagreed with his bleak take on the story and the demotion of Johanka's character to a supporting role and refused him as the film's potential director. Fenič stuck to his approach and directed his reworked screenplay under the title A Juice Novel (Džusový román, 1984, released 1988) at the Barrandov Studios
.
Zimková then found an accommodating co-writer in Uher who knew her from her roles in his three previous films. Their screenplay absorbed several of the themes and characters from her debut in fiction, but apart from that, there is little resemblance between the book's self-contained tales and the film's integrated storyline. Zimková said that the title was a phrase used in her village to describe someone who had happiness within reach and then lost it. That local meaning would not have been recognized by most viewers, though. It is a line from a waggish folk song. It continues "she bathed in razor blades..." and depicts a woman acting out impracticable feats. Zimková was key in the film's outcome: she was the author of the original book, co-wrote the screenplay, was familiar with the region where the story took place, and took on the leading role of Johanka.
Milka Zimková played in Štefan Uher's three previous films. The cast was composed of little known actors, several of them Czechs who were capable of giving convincing performances in Slovak as well as in its eastern regional variety
, but the successful use of the local dialect also gave the distributors in the Czech-speaking area
of Czechoslovakia
the idea to have it subtitled in Czech, a complete rarity in the history of Czechoslovak cinema. Many of the extras were hired at Šarišské Michaľany
and Fintice
, two of the filming locations, as well as in neighboring Ostrovany
.
in 1982, the film opened in Czechoslovakia's
Czech-speaking part
in 1983, it was released in the former East Germany in 1984 under the literal translation Sie weidete Pferde auf Beton, which was also the case with its Polish title Pasła konie na betonie, while the Hungarian rendition of the title was Betonlegelő (A Concrete Pasture), the latter two countries saw it in 1985.
She Grazed Horses on Concrete was released on DVD in the PAL format, 4:3 aspect ratio, region-free ("Region 0") with English subtitles by SME/Slovenský filmový ústav in 2006.
Cinema of Slovakia
The cinema of Slovakia encompasses a range of themes and styles typical of European cinema. Yet there are a certain number of recurring themes that are visible in the majority of the important works. These include rural settings, folk traditions, and carnival...
.
A quarter of a century later, its DVD release sold out within weeks. The film, directed by the reputed Štefan Uher
Štefan Uher
Štefan Uher was a Slovak film director, one of the founders of the "Czechoslovak New Wave"....
, made the women at its center stage stand for humankind as matter-of-factly as much of Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
an filmmaking had been portraying men's worlds, the quiet turnaround never even became a talking point. It was also the first film that employed a regional variety of the language that would be naturally used where the story took place, which provided an additional layer of humor whose novelty had people rolling in the aisles.
Its baffling title quotes a verse from a fresh folk song about a woman striving to accomplish impossible feats. Attempts to render it in English resulted in the film being shown and quoted under a range of titles that have included She Kept Crying for the Moon, She Kept Asking for the Moon, A Ticket to Heaven (also the erroneous A Ticket to the Heaven), and Concrete Pastures.
Plot summary
Johanka (Milka Zimková) had a fling with a well-digger (Peter Vonš) she had not met before and who, she was most likely certain, would never be around again. About 18 years later, she is a single woman respected and recognized at the local co-op farm where she works − except that it does not translate to the same compensation for her as for the male workers − who keeps turning down her life-long suitor, friend and neighbor Berty (Peter Staník). Her 18-year-old daughter Paulína (Veronika Jeníková) commutes by bus to work in the nearby city, which gives the village gossips the occasional opportunity to remind her of her unknown father. A resultant conflict with her mother makes Paulína take up residence in the city.Johanka, prodded by her also-single friend Jozefka (Marie Logojdová) who maintains that a woman without a man is nothing, begins to woo the new teacher Jarek (Jiří Klepl) only to discover later that he is married. Paulína, in the meantime, loses her virginity to the soldier Jirka (Ivan Klečka) who promptly makes himself scarce. Johanka fails to consider that she actually has a better life than some of her married neighbors, begins to see abortion or marriage as Paulína's only options, and places personals on her behalf. Although Štefan (Ľubomír Paulovič), one of the men who respond, turns out to be less than ideal, Paulína falls for him.
As Štefan's car breaks down on the way to the elaborate wedding party and the cake adorned with a doll he is bringing begins to melt in the heat, Paulína, in her wedding dress and tipsy before the ceremony, suffers miscarriage, perhaps as a result of Johanka's earlier attempt to induce abortion that would look as if it occurred spontaneously. The car that carries Paulína to the hospital passes Štefan's car towed by a farm tractor, but none of the involved notice.
Director
Štefan UherŠtefan Uher
Štefan Uher was a Slovak film director, one of the founders of the "Czechoslovak New Wave"....
(1930, Prievidza
Prievidza
Prievidza is a city in the central-western Slovakia. With 51,200 inhabitants it is one of the biggest municipalities in the Trenčín Region.-Features:...
− 1993, Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
) graduated from the FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
in 1955. Among his fellow students were future directors Martin Hollý Jr.
Cinema of Slovakia
The cinema of Slovakia encompasses a range of themes and styles typical of European cinema. Yet there are a certain number of recurring themes that are visible in the majority of the important works. These include rural settings, folk traditions, and carnival...
and Peter Solan
Cinema of Slovakia
The cinema of Slovakia encompasses a range of themes and styles typical of European cinema. Yet there are a certain number of recurring themes that are visible in the majority of the important works. These include rural settings, folk traditions, and carnival...
who also began to work at the Koliba film studios (then called the Feature Film Studio and the Short Film Studio) in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
after graduation. Uher first worked in the short film division. His second feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
, The Sun in a Net
The Sun in a Net
The Sun in a Net is a 1963 film that became a key film in the development of Slovak and Czechoslovak cinema from the mandated Socialist-Realist filmmaking of the repressive 1950s towards the Czechoslovak/Czech New Wave and socially critical or experimental films of the 1960s marked by a...
is still recognized as a milestone in the development of Slovak
Cinema of Slovakia
The cinema of Slovakia encompasses a range of themes and styles typical of European cinema. Yet there are a certain number of recurring themes that are visible in the majority of the important works. These include rural settings, folk traditions, and carnival...
and 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...
cinema. Milka Zimková acted in his three previous films. The cameraman of She Grazed Horses on Concrete, Stanislav Szomolányi, later professor of cinematography at the University of Performing Arts, Bratislava, made nine other films with Uher.
Screenplay
Milka Zimková's (b. 1951, OkružnáOkružná
Okružná is a village and municipality in Prešov District in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 423 metres and covers an area of 11.516 km². It has a population of about 440 people....
) collection of short stories She Grazed Horses on Concrete (Pásla kone na betóne, 1980) was an instant success and has been republished least six times through the 2000s. Documentary film director Fero Fenič wrote a literary-narrative screenplay on themes from the last of the fifteen stories, "A Ticket to Heaven" (Vstupenka do neba), but when he began to work with Zimková on a shooting script
Shooting script
A shooting script is the version of a screenplay used during the production of a motion picture. Shooting scripts are distinct from spec scripts in that they make use of scene numbers , and they follow a well defined set of procedures specifying how script revisions should be implemented and...
, she disagreed with his bleak take on the story and the demotion of Johanka's character to a supporting role and refused him as the film's potential director. Fenič stuck to his approach and directed his reworked screenplay under the title A Juice Novel (Džusový román, 1984, released 1988) at the Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios
Barrandov Studios is a famous set of film studios in Prague, Czech Republic. It is the largest film studio in the country and one of the largest in Europe.Several of the movies filmed there won Academy Awards...
.
Zimková then found an accommodating co-writer in Uher who knew her from her roles in his three previous films. Their screenplay absorbed several of the themes and characters from her debut in fiction, but apart from that, there is little resemblance between the book's self-contained tales and the film's integrated storyline. Zimková said that the title was a phrase used in her village to describe someone who had happiness within reach and then lost it. That local meaning would not have been recognized by most viewers, though. It is a line from a waggish folk song. It continues "she bathed in razor blades..." and depicts a woman acting out impracticable feats. Zimková was key in the film's outcome: she was the author of the original book, co-wrote the screenplay, was familiar with the region where the story took place, and took on the leading role of Johanka.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Milka Zimková (b. 1951) | Johana "Johanka" Ovšená |
| Veronika Jeníková (b. 1964) | Pavlína "Pavla/Pavlínka" Ovšená, her daughter |
| Peter Staník (1947-1995) | Berty, Johanka's neighbor, friend and suitor |
| Marie Logojdová (b. 1952) | Jozefka, Johanka's friend |
| Valérie Jergová | Teča, Paulína's friend |
| Ľubomír Paulovič (b. 1952) | Štefan, Johanka's bridegroom |
| Jiří Klepl | Teacher Jarek |
| Ivan Klečka | Soldier Jirka, Paulína's lover |
| Anton Načiniak | Ján "Janko/Janči" Kerekeš, co-op director |
| Tamara Simková | Margita "Gitka" Kerekešová, his wife |
| Anton Trón (1926-1996) | Štefan "Pišta" Kovaľanec, shy amateur actor |
| Peter Vonš | Well-digger, Johanka's lover and Paulína's probable father |
| Jaroslav Sypal (b. 1958) | Tomáš Jakabuch, student from Forestry High School |
| Mikuláš Laš | Michal Ovšený, Johanka's brother |
| Ján Németh | Imriško, manager and violitnist of the wedding music band |
| Mária Godálová (1927-1983) | Štefan's Mother |
| Ferdinand Macurák | Ondro |
| Nora Kuželová | Katarína |
| Karel Riegel | Franta |
| Ján Mildner | Uncle Mihál, speaks up for Johanka at co-op meeting |
| Alena Fabiánová | Widow Holcová |
| Jozer Friňák | Jožko, talks out of order at co-op meeting |
| Želmíra Kačková | Neighbor |
| Beňo Michalský (b. 1927) | Driver |
| Andrej Šilan | District Agricultural Supervisor |
| Oľga Vronská (1920-2002) | Mother Felimáková |
| Jaroslav Trón | Doďo Felimák |
| Peter Benda | Dodo Dyha |
| Marián Geišberg | Feri Dyha |
Regions of Slovakia
Since 1949 , Slovakia has been divided into a number of kraje . Their number, borders and functions have been changed several times. There are currently eight regions of Slovakia and they correspond to the EU's NUTS 3 level of local administrative units. Each kraj consists of okresy...
, but the successful use of the local dialect also gave the distributors in the Czech-speaking area
Administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia
This article deals with historic administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia up to 1992, when the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the divisions were changed....
of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
the idea to have it subtitled in Czech, a complete rarity in the history of Czechoslovak cinema. Many of the extras were hired at Šarišské Michaľany
Šarišské Michalany
Šarišské Michaľany is a village and municipality in Sabinov District in the Prešov Region of north-eastern Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an elevation of 313 metres and covers an area of 9.333 km²...
and Fintice
Fintice
Fintice is a village and municipality in Prešov District in the Prešov Region of eastern Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 271 metres and covers an area of 11.241 km². It has a population of about 1675 people.-External links:...
, two of the filming locations, as well as in neighboring Ostrovany
Ostrovany
Ostrovany is a village and municipality in Sabinov District in the Prešov Region of north-eastern Slovakia.-History:In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1248...
.
Release dates
The premiere was in BratislavaBratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
in 1982, the film opened in Czechoslovakia's
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
Czech-speaking part
Administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia
This article deals with historic administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia up to 1992, when the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the divisions were changed....
in 1983, it was released in the former East Germany in 1984 under the literal translation Sie weidete Pferde auf Beton, which was also the case with its Polish title Pasła konie na betonie, while the Hungarian rendition of the title was Betonlegelő (A Concrete Pasture), the latter two countries saw it in 1985.
She Grazed Horses on Concrete was released on DVD in the PAL format, 4:3 aspect ratio, region-free ("Region 0") with English subtitles by SME/Slovenský filmový ústav in 2006.