Crime at the Zlenice Castle

The television series was created as an adaptation of Radovan Šimáček’s novel A Crime in Zlenice Castle L. P. 1318, which was published as a series in Lidové noviny in 1940, and was released as a complete work a year later. Unusually for his period, Šimáček decided to set the detective tale against a historical background, and the television transcript of his work also occupies a similarly unique position in Czechoslovak Television production during a period of normalisation. The plot surrounding the murder of Lord Oldřich of Zlenice, which may or may not have been committed for political reasons, is mediated in one large-scale retrospective, which is accompanied by a voice-over by a “detective” played by Petr Kostka. Rather than the traditional form of film noir, the movie has more in common with Agatha Christie’s detective stories, where a crime behind closed doors represents a riddle with a limited set of possible solutions. (Noir Film Festival)