"The Central Film Distribution Office presents" "THE OSSUARY" "Produced by J. Soukup Edited by M. Sádková" "Music by Z. Liška" "Photography by S. Malý" "Written and directed by J. Švankmajer" "Two crowns fifty." "Have you got 20 hellers?" "20 hellers?" "90 hellers." "Thank you." "And what are you going to have?" "This picture." "That's 90." "This is the Schwarzenbergs' coat of arms." "Yes." "55 and five is 60." "One, two, three, four, here you go." "I do all this single-handedly." "I have to manage it all." "I am a rotten pensioner." "You know, there's no tour guide here." " And one of those." " Choose one, then." "This is the Schwarzenberg coat of arms." "This is the monstrance near the main altar." "That's the chandelier." "Why don't you take the monstrance?" "90 hellers." " And this one as well." " Yes, one crown eighty." "That's all I have." "You're going home afterwards, your return journey has been arranged." "Let's start." "Move them here, teacher, if you please." "Shut up, you." "There's a church here, there's a mass grave, so you have to keep quiet." " Take your hat off, too." " Hats off, yes." "Quiet, please." "ssten, a nyone who to u cnes a bone bays a 50 crown fine" "You are in the largest ossuary in the world." "It contains an estimated 70,000 skeletons." "These bones are from the plague of 1318." "The epidemic that swept through Bohemia was so severe that 30,000 people were buried here in a single year." " Have you heard of the plague?" " Yes." "It's an infectious disease." "And then there are bones from the 1421 Hussite wars, when Kutná Hora was the second royal city after Prague." "The great temple and the monastery were burnt down and demolished and most of the Cistercians were killed." "Some of them fled for their lives and returned here." "They started removing the bones from these mass graves, but because there were so many, they decided to move them here, in this chapel, to make it into a kind of mass grave." "In 1511, a half-blind monk arranged them in six pyramids." "In all the ossuaries of the world, be it in Melnik or France, they are always piled in pyramids." "Whereas here Rint created a work unparalleled in the world." "Exactly 100 years ago he was invited here by the Bohemian Prince Schwarzenberg of Orlik." "He had a manor and a brickworks here, and donated the surpluses for these memorials." "He invited Rint here who then worked here with his wife and two children, just like you." "They drilled holes in the bones and threaded a wire through them and he spent ten years underground here." "One thing worth noting right here is this wonderful chandelier containing every bone in the human body." "Does anyone know what an American dollar is?" "Has anyone seen a dollar?" "Well, we were offered 100,000 dollars for the chandelier to go to America in 1968." "Step right here up to the tomb and look up at it to see how beautiful it is." "What required particular skill..." "He was a woodcarver, and if the wood split, he could create a different ornament - in the same way the pews were carved - but here, he tried to preserve all the bones as they are in our body." "That required tremendous craftsmanship." "Look at those goblet stems, for instance." "What imagination, so many little bones!" "Think about it when you come down and see the pyramids - if the pyramid was taken apart and each one of us was told," ""Go on, create something out of it", we probably couldn't." "I often think, "I'm going to tweak this, wash this little head, straighten up this little bone", but to come up with an idea of my own, that really..." "I come up here and I can't think of anything." "Touching the bones will cost you 50 crowns." "Every little bone has up to four holes in it and is threaded with a wire." "40 cubic metres of bones are still buried at the back under the iron cross with the name Schwarzenberg on it." "Those bones weren't used because there would be no space left for anyone to come in here." "On 2 November, there will be a holy mass for all those in front of you and it is honoured as a joint grave, which is why we don't like any racket here." "And I, in particular, have grown so attached to them that I won't let anyone harm them." "We've seen growing vandalism here recently, with stupid boys scribbling on the skulls, moving the bones." "And I spent three hours trying to wash it off the other day, but the ballpoint ink is impossible to remove, so now we have fines." "If anyone touches the bones, they will immediately pay a 50-crown fine." "Next to the first pew on the left, you'll see Schwarzenberg's coat of arms." "It was his reward for driving the Turks out of Bohemia in 1658 and he crushed them near the town of Ráb." "Ráb means "rook", so you can see a rook made of human bones pecking out a Turk's eye." "To show his gratitude for being paid well for ten years and not being rushed and for the children and their mother - the whole family - being provided with a livelihood," "Rint made it out of the bones for the prince." "It is a true work of art." "Next to the coat of arms, you can see two little altars made of skulls broken with Hussite weapons." "So, have a really good look around and don't waste your money" " I'm very strict about that." "Under King Premysl Otakar ll, some earth from Mount Calvary, where Christ was crucified, was brought and spread here." "Mainly foreigners" " Austrians, Belgians and Germans - wanted to be buried here and the graveyard covers 16 hectares." "This is still being verified." "If you came a fortnight ago, a sewerage system was being dug out here and university students came over from Prague." "They would jump into a ditch and when they caught the bus back, they had armfuls of bones, jaws with beautiful teeth, complete backbones." "Children, listen, I am really very strict about it." "I'm not a guide, I'm just filling in, but I have grown so attached to them these past 18 months that I won't let anyone harm them." "So please behave as you would when you go with your mum to visit your granny's grave." "Most of those buried here are martyrs, victims of the plague, the Hussite wars, so we must treat them with respect." "Go very slowly." "This is something unique in the world." "Don't miss anything." " Come here." "I've already warned you once." " Me?" "Have you got 50 crowns?" "Yes!" "I have warned you and you touched it again." " Me?" " You just touched the bones again!" "That just isn't on, children." "This is unique, and even though I reminded you, you deliberately..." "I was washing it for three hours the other day, teacher." "They've been scribbling on it with ballpoint pens, I can't wash it off." "It is a mass grave, even if it's not a church any more." "Please." "Three ninety." "Produced by Krátký film Barrandov Film Laboratories"