Closely Watched Trains
“All it takes to make a man of a boy is a woman.”
At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot.
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Criterion Channel
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Cast
46 people
Jiří Menzel Director · Bohumil Hrabal Screenplay Jiří Šust Composer
Worldwide gross $1.5M · United States release October 15, 1967 · Produced in XC, Czechia, Slovakia
Box office
Worldwide gross
$1,500,000
Production
Filmové studio Barrandov
Production
Barrandov Studios
Studio · Production
XC · Czechia · Slovakia
Produced in
Languages
Original title
Ostře sledované vlaky
Original language
Czech
Spoken on screen
Czech · German
Release dates
XC · November 18, 1966
Theatrical
United States · October 15, 1967
Limited theatrical · US theatrical premiere: Festival Theater, NYC
United States
June 17, 1967 · Premiere · Festival of Czechoslovak Cinema, Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Czechia
September 1, 2020 · Digital
Finland
September 15, 1967 · Theatrical
Greece
August 5, 2004 · Theatrical · re-release
Italy
April 27, 1968 · Theatrical
Netherlands
October 4, 2005 · Physical · DVD
South Korea
May 10, 2007 · Theatrical
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Some details come from TheTVDB.