Dragon’s Return
 

PostED ON 19.10.2023

Every day, we feature a little-known filmmaker and a film to rediscover; doing justice to those forgotten in the history of cinema is also the role of the Lumière film festival. 

Dragon’s Return, 1968 © DR 

Who is he ?

Dragon’s Return is the third feature film by Czechoslovakian director Eduard Grecner (b. 1931). Made in 1968, at a time when certain countries in the Soviet bloc were trying in vain to free themselves from the Russian yoke, Dragon’s Return develops a certain sense of revolt. Not surprisingly, Grecner spoke out against the Soviet tank invasion of Prague, which led to him being banned from filming. 

His film at the Lumière film festival

Dragon's Return is set in rural medieval Czechoslovakia, where Dragon, a one-eyed man of imposing stature, returns to his village to resume his life where he left off, provoking rumours and uproar.

Why is it worth discovering?

Dragon's Return is a tale that is somewhat different from anything we've seen before. Eduard Grecner's many formal and narrative choices make this film an exception. Poetic slow motion, puzzling blurring, splendid black and white, and rare dialogue that is often indirect, almost like a voice-over, make this work a drama with contradictory effects. The miraculous sequences of Dragon's Return are followed by moments of chaos and violence. There is the romance between Dragon and the woman he loves, whose kisses swirl around him. There are the inhabitants of the village, poor and suspicious farmers. And all the while, Grecner uses a visual folklore, for example, clothing with details of great beauty, which is never incidental, because it is always documentary. The filmmaker takes us to unchanging lands of tradition, populated by human beings that are plagued by universal reactions such as hatred, envy, love and freedom.