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Closely Watched Trains

Haifa Classics

  • Archive - Festival 32
  • Director: Jiri Menzel
  • Czechoslovakia 1966
  • 93 minutes
  • Czech
  • Subtitles in Hebrew, English

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery.
Academy Award-winning Closely Watched Trains is a masterpiece of human observation and one of the best-loved films of the Czech New Wave.
Filmography: The Don Juans (2013), I Served the King of England (2006), The Beggar's Opera (1991), My Sweet Little Village (1985), Shortcuts (1981), Secluded, Near Woods (1976), Larks on a String (1969).
Restored Digital Copy


  • Director Jiri Menzel
  • Production Dr. Zdenek Oves
  • Script Bohumil Hrabal, Jiří Menzel
  • Cinematography Jaromír Šofr
  • Editing Jiřina Lukešová
  • Music Jiří Šust
  • Actors Milos Vaclac Neckar, Masa Jitka Bendova, Vladimir Valenta
  • Source National Film Archive, Prague

Closely Watched Trains