Any director will tell you that making a film takes courage. But making a film that blatantly criticizes the repressive Communist government of your country? That takes real courage. No wonder Evald Schorm was long known as “the conscience of the Czech New Wave” — he even was forced to stop making films for 18 years, as the Soviet censors considered his vision too subversive. Courage for Every Day was his first move into such dangerous territory, portraying the life and changing times of average factory worker Jarda Lukas. At first loyal to the party and its ideals, Lukas gradually wakes up to the corruption all around him—tracing the journey of a man from faith to disillusionment.
Grand Prize at Locarno International Film Festival,
Annual Prize of Czech Film Critics
Possibly the most influential and most accomplished work of the Czech renaissance, this story of a disillusioned young Communist increasingly at odds with his environment touched on themes of alienation, opportunism, the exhaustion of ideology, and charted with progress of a secular crucifixion.