The Cremator

“NO ONE WILL SUFFER.”

Karel Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrušínský) runs the crematorium in 1930s Prague and speaks of fire as a mercy, a way of releasing the dead, and the living, from earthly suffering. Juraj Herz follows him through the days when a new, hard politics starts to find a willing ear in a man so sure of his gentle purpose. Kopfrkingl stands by the furnace doors in his dark coat, the same quiet smile on his face.