Marian

This moving first feature observes the institutionalisation of a gypsy boy, taken from his mother at the age of three, with a sharp realist's eye. Ferko (as the young Marian) and Cifra (as the older) give superb performances as 'the different boy' whose experiences made him first attempt suicide, and then the murder of a warden (who treated him as a temporary pet), before reform school, prison and then faltering steps into the equally cruel, outside world. The documentary roots of director and co-writer Václav are evident, but his emotionally expressionist use of landscape (the torrential river, the snow-bound woods) and mature, if demanding, use of narrative shorthand show him to be a film-maker of all-round talent.