Closely Watched Trains (Jiří Menzel, 1966)

Wheelchair accessible | English subtitles | Pay-what-you-can tickets (£2–12)

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A classic of the Czechoslovak New Wave, Jiří Menzel’s Oscar-winning directorial debut presents an absurd, comedic depiction of youth under occupation.

Set against the backdrop of rural, Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Closely Watched Trains follows Milos (Vaclav Neckar), a young apprentice train dispatcher, as he struggles to navigate his sexual insecurities alongside the stark realities of life during World War II.

Through the film’s weaving of coming-of-age narratives with grander acts of rebellion, Closely Watched Trains presents a tender portrait of adolescence, in all its frailty, anchored simultaneously in the banality of the everyday and in the most trying of circumstances.

Updating the Czech archetype of The Good Soldier Švejk, Menzel’s film serves as a deeply humanistic portrayal of the anxieties of growing up, which manages to simultaneously feel quotidian and singularly Czech.

Content notes: death, war violence, sexual content, nudity, suicide attempt