About

In 1883, Fröjda Benecke, charismatic widow of a Gothenburg ship-owner, arrives in Jabkenice, where a deaf and half-mad old man lives in solitude and silence. The man is a composer Bedřich Smetana. He doesn’t recognize Fröjda, whom he fell in love with many years ago. But in her presence, he slowly recalls the beginnings of his artistic career when he accepted a conducting post in Gothenburg.

In 1856, Smetana had failed to establish a musical career in Prague and lost three of his four daughters, his own wife Kateřina’s health begins to fail, too. Therefore, he travels to Gothenburg, where he is admired, and accepted by the crème de la crème of culture and society.

At his first concert, he is introduced to Fröjda, a twenty-year-old socialite, wife, mother, and aspiring pianist and is dazzled by her. She is similarly taken by him. Their lives are eerily similar. Both have spouses who don’t understand their passion for music. Both have lost a child and suffered. Both want to break free of the conventions of society.

Smetana’s stay in Gothenburg inspired him greatly and he composed many symphonic poems, such as Impromptus, Bagatele and Ball Vision. He drew a great deal of inspiration from his passionate yet platonic relationship with Fröjda. Smetana wants an intimate relationship with her, but she vows to remain loyal to her husband. Unfortunately, their guarded closeness becomes a subject of gossip which travels overseas and reaches Kateřina, who has stayed behind in Prague.

Determined to save her marriage, Kateřina travels to Gothenburg with her last surviving daughter Žofie and her unmarried sister, Alžběta, who serves as her caregiver. In Gothenburg, Kateřina finds out about the true depth of Smetana’s feelings towards Fröjda and is grief stricken. The cold weather takes a toll of her health. Eventually, Smetana has no choice but to abandon his post and take his family back to Prague, so Kateřina can see her home again before she dies. Smetana is forced to say goodbye to Fröjda who vows never to forget him or their love. Smetana travels back to Prague but Kateřina does not make the journey.

Back in 1883, Smetana is being taken care of by his daughter Žofie but his health and rapidly deteriorating mental state make him dangerous to himself and others. His most famous compositions sound in his head, the arias tangled together. Some compositions anticipate the style of modern 20th century music. He hallucinates. Fröjda tries to get Smetana to recognize her through a musical motif which he once incorporated into his composition in her honour but ultimately lashes out at her and doesn’t want anything to do with her. Fröjda offers Žofie money, collected by her friends in Gothenburg to get treatment for Smetana abroad and departs. At that moment, Smetana remembers her, but she has already left forever.

The film is narrated without any historical pathos. We see the composer as a man riddled with doubts and deep feelings, we follow the artistic beginnings of an extremely talented musician who could incorporate his own emotions into his work. At the end of his life when he loses his mind, he is still a man ahead of his time, a man whose style resembles 20th century modernists. The story doesn’t present Smetana as a figure from a textbook but rather as a modern human being confined by conventions of 19th century.