The Executioner is a TV serial comprising approximately 20 episodes which blends two of the most attractive genres of the contemporary TV output: historical adventure and detective story. The episodes are self-contained tales with the duration of 45-48 minutes.

           The story takes place in a small town in the second half of the seventeenth century. In the first episode, the new executioner, Jan Kalina, arrives. Soon it becomes apparent that he is not a mere organ of the law who blindly punishes, but that he wants to intervene in the investigation, too. He does not accept condemnation of the innocent due to the imperfections of the criminal law and of the system of investigation; therefore he starts verifying his own suspicions which, very often, turn out to be well-founded. Others react to Kalina's efforts adversely, because the executioner is a “low person”.
           Due to his function, he has almost no rights: he must not shake hands with anyone in public, he has his own table in the pub and he is not allowed to enter the town in the same way as other people, but only through the degrading “executioner's gate”. The fact that someone like this interferes in other people's affairs provokes an outraged reaction of ordinary people, as well as of the executioner's superiors – the mayor Toufar and the bilious town councillor Ulbricht. There is someone else, too, who dislikes the executioner's all too enthusiastic search for the truth: the lord of the country, Margrave Richard, an unscrupulous man whose methods are not particularly clean. Thus Kalina must not only fight against criminals and his superiors, but he also has to gain the respect of the public. In addition to all this, he is striving to win the favour of a concrete person – a charming painter.

           The cases which the seventeenth century reality forces Kalina to face vary widely: exposing a serial murderer; finding a forger whose false coins cause a mass poisoning among marketers; protecting the daughter of Kalina's enemy from marauding mercenaries, which leads him straight into the midst of two fighting armies.

           The manifold range of topics, the unusual but fascinating occupation of the protagonist, the well-tried combination of popular genres, as well as the fact that the whole serial will be shot in film quality on the format super 16mm – all these factors make The Executioner a highly perspective project.

  • Number of episodes: 21.
  • Material: film super 16 mm.
  • Language: English
  • Work finished: outline and two episodes of the script. Six script-writers are involved.
  • Shooting plan: optimally, end of this year and next year ( finance completed ).
  • Duration of shooting: 21 episodes, 15 shooting days each. This means about a year and half including breaks. This duration can be shortened.
  • Executive co – producer: TV NOVA; fre TV broadcaster in Czech Republic

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