Distant Journey Through the Desktop 2020

Directed by Jiří Žák

Alfréd Radok’s essay film Distant Journey (Daleká cesta, 1948) is a canonical classic of Czech cinema and a still unique answer to the question of how to express the inexpressible horrors of the Holocaust. However, such a self-reflexive film also needs a film theory that would extend this reflexivity in a videographic form, by means of using the images and sounds themselves and the context in which they appear in the digital space. The film’s “trick montage,” a technique that links storyline moments with archival footage of war destruction, Nazi emblems, and anti-Jewish terror within a single film shot, is thereby translated into the desktop interface and rethought anew.