Jiří Trnka’s The Hand (Ruka, 1965) was seen as subversive by the Czechoslovak communist government because it was a thinly veiled critique of authoritarian control and censorship. The film tells the story of a simple artist who just wants to create his own work, but a giant hand—representing power and authority—constantly pressures him to sculpt what it demands. As the hand’s tactics escalate from persuasion to force, the artist is ultimately destroyed, and his death is repackaged as a state-approved tribute. For the communist government, the message was unmistakable. The film was a reflection of what many artists in Czechoslovakia were experiencing—constant interference, ideological restrictions, and the looming threat of punishment if they didn’t conform. The fact that Trnka, an internationally respected animator, was making this statement made it even more dangerous in the eyes of the authorities. They couldn’t allow a film that so clearly criticized the system to circulate, so they banned it.
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