The Fifth Horseman Is Fear (1965)

Set in Prague, this powerful tale is informed as much by Czech resistance to Soviet impositions as it is by the torments of the Nazi era.A Jewish former doctor is compelled to work cataloguing the confiscated homes and possessions of fellow Jews. When asked to secretly treat a wounded resistance fighter he is plunged into a moral dilemma, and begins a nightmarish odyssey to save the man.Focussing on the intense anxiety, paranoia and terror prevalent in any totalitarian system, Zbyněk Brynych’s The Fifth Horseman is Fear subverts its historical context, creating a frighteningly relevant portrait of a society ruled by fear.Presented from a new HD transfer from original materials, our region-free Blu-ray and DVD editions feature a new Projection Booth commentary; two controversial ‘lost’ sequences that appeared in the 1968 American and Italian release versions of the film; a short film the renowned Czech filmmaker Evald Schorm, plus a booklet with new writing on the film by author Jonathan Owen and filmmaker Dominik Graf.