Oldřich Daněk: Dialogue on the Eve of the Trial (1966)

An unjustly forgotten production of the text that won the 1966 competition for the best radio play. Starring Felix Le Breux and Vladimír Šmeral, or also Karel Höger and Otakar BrousekAt the age of forty, playwright and film scriptwriter Oldřich Daněk (1927-2000) also tried his hand at the genre of the radio play. In 1966 he entered the Czechoslovak Radio's author competition with the text Dialogue on the Eve of Judgement and won the main prize. The play was directed by Jiří Roll the same year and premiered on New Year's Day 1967. But before the year was over, the director returned to the text and filmed it again, with a new cast. The doctor was played this time by Karel Höger and his prosecutor by Otakar Brousek Sr. There is no significant difference between the two productions except for the beginning: The second production begins with a minute or so of soundtrack of an ongoing surgery in the operating theatre. Then, in both cases, we find ourselves in a medical room where the two men have a conversation revolving around a controversial transplant case and the ethics of the medical profession. Persons and cast: Prosecutor (Vladimír Šmeral), Professor (Felix le Breux) and Sister (Slávka Budínová)