by Hal Erickson
synopsis
The Czechoslovakian Cerny Prador (Black Battalion) is set in French Indo-China. The hero is a member of a Foreign Legion unit, fighting on behalf of the French colonial government. Actually, he has a hidden agenda: a former private in the Czech army, he hopes to exact vengeance against his lieutenant, who during WWII was the Nazi officer responsible for the murder of the hero's family. Curiously, little is made of the political implications of the French presence in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Together with The Forty-Four, Cerny Prador represented Czechoslovakia's contribution to its own Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
