Je třeba zabít Sekala (1998)

The film begins with the arrival of Jura Baran (Olaf Lubaszenko), a Wallachian blacksmith, in Lakotice, a village in Haná, where he needs to hide from the Gestapo (he has a letter of recommendation for the local mayor). Because of his Protestant faith, the local farmers receive him rather hostilely. Baran soon learns how things stand in the village: the farmers live in fear of the informer Ivan Sekal (Bogusław Linda), who obtains the land of arrested neighbors from the occupying forces. The peasants decide to exploit Baran’s desperate situation—the mayor knows from the letter where Baran’s wife and son are hiding—and blackmail him into committing murder. Meanwhile, it becomes clear that Sekal’s monstrousness stems from the humiliation he suffered in childhood because he was born out of wedlock. An important theme of the film is also Baran’s relationship with the local priest (Jiří Bartoška), who, unlike the other Catholic villagers, welcomes him more warmly and helps him adjust to life in the village. Baran eventually gives in to the pressure and confronts Sekal, also because the priest tells him in a private conversation that Sekal once confessed to him the brutal crimes he had committed as a volunteer in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The following day, the priest leaves to confess to the Archbishop of Olomouc that he has broken the seal of confession, even though he knows that, as a result of his actions, Baran will be in mortal danger and without the protection of the only person in the village who was sympathetic to him. In a knife fight, Baran does indeed kill Sekal, but is himself seriously wounded. The peasants refuse to help him and leave him to die.