Milena


Release Information: October 25, 1991; Toronto (version anglaise: Canada Square); Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Budget: Budget: $11,133,202

Production Details


Executive Producer: Linda Gutenberg; Claude Léger; Claude Léger; Claude Léger

1989

At the turn of the century, Milena is fascinated with modern literary and artistic movements and falls in love with Ernst Polak, a Jewish avant-garde critic. Despite her father's opposition, she marries him. But anti-Semitism is mounting and Ernst loses his job. Milena becomes a successful journalist and when she catches her unfaithful husband in the act, she leaves for Prague where her childhood friend Olga finds her a job with a newspaper. Passionate about the work of a certain Franz Kafka, she decides to translate it into Czech. They exchange numerous letters and forge close ties. A few months later, Franz succumbs to illness. Although she will never forget him, she marries a communist architect named Jaromir, with whom she has a daughter, Honza. Shortly afterward, Jaromir goes to Moscow and disappears, while Milena is ostracized by her former communist comrades. She sinks into depression but in the face of mounting Nazism, she gets back her fighting spirit. Arrested by the Gestapo, she refuses to take off the star of David that Kafka gave to her.

Source: Library and Archives Canada - Canadian Feature Film Database (LAC)

Contributed Notes

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Milena

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Contributed Notes