Father Holý (Bolek Polívka) is a modern village priest with a common touch, able to entertain his dwindling flock by framing his sermons as dreams he once had. In one of them, he relates the novel idea of walking into an abandoned church and finding God praying to humankind, desperate for proof of our continued existence.
This tale is a key moment in Forgotten Light, for while the film is ostensibly about a Catholic priest facing a crisis of faith at the butt end of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, it is ultimately more concerned with people’s ability to endure and maintain hope in Godless times.
Holý is a Regular Joe sort of priest, just as adept at fixing a motor as he is delivering Mass, and able to match the denizens of the village boozer shot for shot. His backstory suggests that he joined the priesthood for an easier life rather than a burning sense of piety, and he clearly still has a discreet eye for the ladies. He now has quite a lot of time on his hands – his parish once had three churches, but two have been shuttered by the state and converted into storage facilities. His last remaining place of worship is in a severe state of neglect, but he keeps on keeping on through a sense of duty to his small community.
When the church springs a disastrous leak, Father Holý seeks funds to mend the roof. The atheistic Party is quite happy to let religion burn itself out through lack of funds and state support, however, and the seedy purse-keepers insinuate that he could get himself in a lot of trouble if he keeps pushing.
Holý’s a resourceful guy and hatches a risky scheme to raise the money himself, enlisting local sculptor Klima (Jiří Pecha) to carve a duplicate statue of St. Henry so he can flog the original to a wealthy foreign collector of religious artwork. Meanwhile, the priest also becomes involved in the plight of Marjánka (Veronika Žilková), a terminally ill woman he has long held a candle for.
Continue reading “Forgotten Light (Zapomenuté světlo) – Vladimír Michálek, 1996”
Czech Film Review 