Event

MORGIANA

MORGIANA is a tale of two sisters, Klára and Viktorie (both played by Iva Janzurová), who live in a large mansion after the recent death of their wealthy father. Viktorie grows jealous due to the fact that Klára has inherited most of their properties, including their family house. Klára's popularity with men is another source of annoyance for her, a feeling that becomes downright hate when Viktorie discovers that the man she loves is in love with Klára. Full of rage, Viktorie decides to poison her sister, so she buys a lethal potion. But things don't go as planed and the poison is more slow acting than anticipated. Klára begins to suffer from hallucinations, while Viktorie's impatience grows stronger with each second. To make things worse, the man who sold her the poison attempts to blackmail Viktorie, and the sister's cat Morgiana is a silent witness of the madness.

Set in a decadent world that seems stuck in mid 19th century, MORGIANA is based on a by "the Russian Poe", author Alexander Grin. The screenplay, by Vladimir Bor and director Juraj Herz himself, tells a story that's in essence a fairy tale in which the good sister faces the bad sister's schemes. However, it's a fairy tale with a dark spin: the story is told from the perspective of the "bad" sister of the story. Taking as basis the conventions of Gothic costume drama, director Juraj Herz exaggerates them to give MORGIANA a highly stylized atmosphere of grotesque decadence. Instrumental for this is the work of composer Lubo Fier (VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS) and cinematographer Jaroslav Kucera (PEARLS OF THE DEEP and DAISIES), who use their talent to bring to life Herz' deliriously surreal vision of the sisters' Gothic world. (J Luis Rivera)