The Cry

Suggesting almost nothing of the delirious image-making that Jires delivered seven years later in Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, the director's debut is nevertheless a lyrical, calmly observed and modest slice of realism, following a young couple as they await the birth of their first baby. The parents muse separately on life and love, while the closing freeze frame that so pleased the authorities (the husband gazes optimistically into the future) remains a believable gesture, rather than propaganda, given the underlying sense of the Prague Spring that infuses the picture.