High Blue Wall

Annotation for KRRR! 2013 by Michal Večera

The year is 1951, when young Captain Luboš Jelínek is assigned as a political worker to the air force guarding the western borders of Czechoslovakia. Immediately upon arrival, he is confronted with the desperate situation of his new unit – problems with supplies, inadequate accommodation, outdated equipment and complete helplessness in the face of constant provocations from the West. Jelínek's superior, General Dvořák, is a quirky person, and although Captain Jelínek soon grows to like him, he does not always agree with his general on everything. However, the conflicts between the different concepts of work of the experienced soldier and aviation expert Dvořák on the one hand and the young Captain Jelínek on the other do not result in irreconcilable rivalry, but in the gradual strengthening of the friendly bond between the two men. The film's narrative is structured by a diary that Captain Jelínek kept at the beginning of his career, which he recalls in 1973. According to the film's director Vladimír Čech, this retrospective form of narration was the reason why the film crew decided to insert footage of the most modern aviation technology into the final film before the opening credits, so that the viewer could see the progress the Czechoslovak Air Force had made between 1951 and 1973. The film The High Blue Wall was based on Vladimír Podzimek's novel Eight and a Half Kills to the 30th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Independent Czechoslovak Air Force, and is also the first Czech film shot using 70mm technology. This format never caught on in Czech film production on a larger scale, and The High Blue Wall remains, along with Vávrov Sokolov and The Liberation of Prague, one of the few works shot on 70mm technology. The Czechoslovak People's Army, the Svazarm, and some other state bodies participated in the production of the film, thanks to which the combat scenes could be shot directly in the air. The film crew was provided with several different types of aircraft for these purposes – the air force also provided an entire squadron of MiG-15s. All aerial footage had to be shot by the cameraman of the Czechoslovak Army Film, because none of the Barrandov employees had been tested for filming in fighter aircraft. Fighter pilots themselves and members of other army units also appeared in minor roles in the film. The film won several awards – in 1974 the Special Prize of the Festival Committee in Nitra, in June of the same year the Special Prize of the Jury at the Workers' Film Festival, and in 1975 Vladimír Čech received the Czech Literary Fund Award for directing the film.