Ninety Degrees in the Shade

During the ‘50s, Jiri Weiss was one of Czechoslovakia’s most highly regarded filmmakers. A native of Prague, he originally studied law and worked as journalist. He began making documentaries in 1936. His debut, Lidé na Slunci/People in the Sun, earned an award for amateur documentary at that year’s Venice Film Festival. When the Nazis invaded in 1938, Weiss fled first to Paris and then to London where he began making documentaries such as The Rape of Czechoslovakia (1939) and Before the Raid (1943). Following the war, Weiss returned to Czechoslovakia to make such highly regarded films as Vlici Jama/The Wolf Trap (1957) and Romeo, Julie a Tma/Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1960). When the Soviets invaded his country, Weiss again fled. He did not return as a filmmaker until 1990 when he went to Czechoslovakia to film Martha und Ich/Martha and I. —allmovie guide