Iva Janžurová puts in a tour-de-force performance as twin sisters Klára and Viktoria, the latter hell-bent on doing away with the former, in Juraj Herz’s deliciously overripe adaptation of Aleksandr Grin’s 1929 novel Jessie and Morgiana.

With froufrou costuming and opulent production design informed by the director’s enthusiasm for the work of Gustav Klimt, cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera has a field day with wide-angle lenses and employing prismatic colour effects exceeding even those found in his earlier films with Věra Chytilová. Features an eerie soundtrack by the brilliant Luboš Fišer.

CaSFFA is proud to screen a 35mm print of Morgiana, courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague, in partnership with the Melbourne Cinémathèque.