Witchhammer Blu-ray Movie  

Kladivo na čarodějnice / Witches' Hammer / The Witch Hunt

Severin Films | 1969 | 103 min | Not rated | No Release Date | Jeffrey Kauffman

Otakar Vávra's Witchhammer, co-written by Ester Krumbachová (Daisies, Fruit of Paradise) from Václav Kaplický’s 1963 novel, chronicles the series of notorious 17th Century Czech witch trials, undertaken using the infamous ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ (the ‘Witchhammer’ of the title), the Catholic treatise on witchcraft which endorses the extermination of witches and developed a detailed legal and theological theory for this purpose. Using genuine court transcripts from the forced confessions of those accused of sorcery and collusion with the Devil, it is a powerful and often shocking allegory of life under totalitarian rule.

Drama / History / Foreign