The Hop-Pickers

This 1964 musical from director Ladislav Rychman has remained popular with generations of Czech viewers for its sympathetic portrayal of young rebellion, timeless humour, and catchy songs courtesy of Jiří Malásek, Jiří Bažant and Vlastimil Hála. But the main accolades for the creation of this most famous of Czechoslovak musicals go to screenwriter Vratislav Blažek (who also serves as song lyricist). The film’s story revolves around an outdoors hop-picking student workers’ outing and two of its members – intellectual oddball Filip (excellently portrayed by Vladimír Pucholt) and charming, practical Hanka (Ivana Pavlová) – whose paths cross. Serving as a counterpoint to these love-struck youngsters is pragmatic conformist Honza (Miloš Zavadil), and a professor nicknamed Jana Ámosa (Irena Kačírková), who sets about trying to find out which female student has fallen for Filip. Despite inspiration by way of West Side Story (1961), Starci na chmelu (Hop-Pickers) retains a quintessentially Czech character.