ON THE TRAIL OF BLOOD

Major Kalas is dispatched to the northern Bohemian countryside to investigate the murder of a child. The details of the crime are very unsettling – especially since they exhibit a disturbing number of parallels to an earlier murder case. Is it the work of a serial killer, one who revels in the sight of the blood of the dying? In order to break the case, the street-smart expert in human nature reaches for the tools of cinema: the detective attempts to confront the perpetrator with his own image. Major Kalas, perhaps trailblazing Czech crime novelist Eduard Fiker’s most famous character, approaches his cases with great patience and attentiveness. If that calls Maigret to mind, you’re right on the money, at least in a sense – Rudolf Hrušínský, who seemed to have a lifetime lease on the Kalas character, was also the most significant interpreter of Simenon’s commissioner in Central and Eastern Europe.