AllMovie

Director Otakar Vavra and screenwriter Milos V. Kratochvil have teamed once again to continue a cycle on the antecedents of protestantism, or the reformation movement that began within the Catholic Church and fostered many martyrs, one such being Jan Hus. Nearly two hundred years after Hus was burned at the stake, Jan Amos Komensky (John Amos Comenius), a contemporary of Martin Luther and priest in the Church of the Bohemian Brethren, continued Hus' teachings. Comenius is lauded for advocating that education be universally available to men and women, rich or poor, and after 40 years of tireless effort, he did improve education in Europe and wrote a 20-volume dictionary of the Czech language, partially destroyed by his enemies. Traveling through Poland, France, England, Sweden, and the Netherlands to escape persecution, Comenius wrote and taught about his beliefs and philosophy, dying in 1670 at the age of 78. This docu on Comenius will be the most fascinating to religion and history aficionados, while others may find it dry, but all can appreciate the rural landscapes and medieval castles captured in the poetic lens of cameraman Jaromir Sofr.