Juraj Jakubisko - Kristove roky AKA The Crucial Years (1967)

Quote:
Jakubiskos debut, by many considered his best movie. The title can be translated as “The Crucial Years”, but literally it is “The Christ Years”, based on the idiomatic notion that a man should accomplish something in life before he reaches the age of Jesus when he was crucified. The film surely has some autobiographical elements, as it is about a beginning artist from Eastern Slovakia who lives and works in Prague.

In this tragi-comic testimony to the need for a choice at the crossroads of maturity, the main character, an emotional artist, keeps thinking about himself and the purpose of his life. Hiding his helplessness, he finds his life without a goal or responsibilities. Later on, he realizes that the quality of life and experience depends on unwritten rules and higher principles.

J. Jakubisko: “My debut about the years when the Universe stops revolving around the crucified illusions of the young who lose their breath while maturing.”