Jan Morávek: Rock Breed

The stony Posázaví region was often the focus of the novels of Jan Morávek (1888-1958), a Czech novelist whose realistic and even chronicle-like stories were sought after by readers especially in the 1940s. With intimate knowledge, the author depicted the fate of the people from the Sázava River with their inherited almost mystical affection for granite, to which they felt fatally attached. Morávek devoted his novel The Rock Breed, set before the First World War, to the hard work of stone breakers. The protagonist, stonemason Petr Pangrác, understands the rocks of his homeland like few others. Like most of the men from the village of Závoz, he lives from his work in the quarries belonging to the Konopiště upper class. The radio dramatisation based on the novel by Jan Morávka was written by František Pavlíček. Jiří Roll directed the film, which cast Bořivoj Navrátil in the main roles, Alena Vránová, Josef Beck, Jan Faltynek, Viktor Preiss, František Hanus, Nelly Gaier and other excellent actors.