Kings of Šumava

The true story of the legendary smuggler Josef Hasil, known by the State Security as the King of Šumava. The mysterious hero of the deep Šumava forests helped dozens of people, including mothers with children, from communist Czechoslovakia to the West, whom he managed to smuggle through the swamps all the way to Germany. Although he was once discovered and imprisoned, he soon escaped from the camp, only to return as an agent of the US intelligence agency CIC, today's CIA. How did Hasil view his mission as a smuggler? Why did he have to leave the girl he loved? And how does one of those whose life he saved see him? The film is framed by the exclusive testimony of Josef Hasil himself, recorded by the filmmakers in the USA shortly before his death in 2019. The action and romantic story of the smuggling legend comes to life through rotoscopic animation (known, for example, from the film ALOIS NEBEL), which also gives prominence to another heroine of the film, which is the inscrutable and mystical landscape of Šumava. This gripping film enters cinemas on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Hasil's birth.