The Czech paranoid thriller In The Shadow (Ve Stinu) follows a police detective in 1953 Prague. The Communist government credits him with solving a case – but he figures out that the crime was committed by different perpetrator with a different motive. Unfortunately, the truth is not politically convenient, and he must navigate through the criminal underground, Commie thugs, a former Nazi and Cold War show trials or he’ll become yet another film noir tragic ending.
The cop is played by the Czech actor Ivan Trojan, whose performance I admired so much in the creepy voyeur film Visible World. In Visible Word, Trojan got to play a seriously twisted guy. Trojan’s role in In the Shadow is not as showy, but he creates a hard-boiled character of uncommon determination and devotion to the truth.
In the Shadow is a well-crafted cop movie with added intensity from a nefarious Big Brother. In the Shadow won Best Film at the Czech Film Critics’ Awards and was the Czech submission to the Academy Awards. It plays at Cinequest on February 28, March 6 and March 8. The trailer is in Czech without English subtitles.