# Fruit of Paradise
**Fruit of Paradise** (Czech: *Ovoce stromů rajských jíme*, literally "We Eat the Fruit of the Trees of Paradise") is a 1970 allegorical feature film by the Czech director Věra Chytilová, a Czechoslovakia–Belgium co-production that retells the story of [Adam and Eve](https://www.edgepedia.org/adam-and-eve) as a stylized detective parable set in a health resort. It was her last film made in the liberal climate of 1960s [Czechoslovakia](https://www.edgepedia.org/czechoslovakia) before a seven-year politically imposed hiatus.[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/fruit-of-paradise/) • [2](https://nfa.cz/en/25893-we-eat-the-fruit-of-the-trees-of-paradise)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *Ovoce stromů rajských jíme*; parallel English title "We Eat the Fruit of the Trees of Paradise"[3](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/film/396826/ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime) |
| Director / year | Věra Chytilová; produced 1968–1969, released 1970[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/fruit-of-paradise/) • [3](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/film/396826/ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime) |
| Countries / runtime | Czechoslovakia and Belgium; 99 minutes (some archives list 95–96 min)[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/fruit-of-paradise/) • [2](https://nfa.cz/en/25893-we-eat-the-fruit-of-the-trees-of-paradise) |
| Key collaborators | Screenplay Ester Krumbachová and Chytilová; cinematography Jaroslav Kučera; music Zdeněk Liška[2](https://nfa.cz/en/25893-we-eat-the-fruit-of-the-trees-of-paradise) |
| Cast | Jitka Nováková (Eva), Karel Novák (Josef), Jan Schmid (Robert), Eva Gabrielová, Julius Albert[2](https://nfa.cz/en/25893-we-eat-the-fruit-of-the-trees-of-paradise) |
| Premiere | In competition at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival; Czech premiere July 1970[4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise) |
| Aftermath | Chytilová's last film before a seven-year ban under normalization; she returned with *The Apple Game* (1976)[5](https://www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/filme/fruit-of-paradise/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and allegory
The film resets the Genesis story of Adam, Eve, and the serpent in a crumbling health spa. Eva and Josef are a married couple whose relationship has stagnated; she knows he is unfaithful. A stranger, Robert, a devilish charmer in a red velvet suit, enters their garden and fascinates Eva, and she learns he may be a serial killer of women.[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/fruit-of-paradise/) • [6](https://www.dhm.de/zeughauskino/en/screening/ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime-10335/)
The detective plot carries the biblical theme of knowledge. Eva's quest for truth about Robert is manifested in the recurring motif of his red leather satchel, which she finally searches, finding a red stamp of the number 6; a serial killer has been leaving that number stamped on his blonde victims. Eva stamps it on her own thigh, Robert sees the mark, and their relationship turns into a sexually charged pursuit that ends with her holding his gun and shooting him, intentionally or not.[7](https://eefb.org/retrospectives/vera-chytilovas-fruit-of-paradise-ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime-1970/) The film's story, written in 1968, suggests a third option beyond eating the fruit of knowledge or refusing it: rejection of the revealed truth. At the end Eva flees to the snow-covered world of Josef and begs him not to ask for the truth, just as she refuses to ask for it; he walks away, abandoning her.[4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise) • [7](https://eefb.org/retrospectives/vera-chytilovas-fruit-of-paradise-ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime-1970/)
Chytilová and Krumbachová also refer to folk and mythological stories of heroines punished for curiosity, including Alice in [Wonderland](https://www.edgepedia.org/wonderland), Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and [Pandora's box](https://www.edgepedia.org/pandoras-box) (here Eve's suitcase), while Eva resists fairy-tale archetypes and clear-cut definition.[8](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/revue/detail/fruit-of-paradise)
## Political reading
The parable carries indirect allusions to the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia of August 1968. When the heroine says, "They don't want to know the truth, just like I don't want to know it," the line is one of several references to the invasion and to the citizen's relation to government.[4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise) The German Historical Museum's program notes describe the film as an operatic detective story too subversive for the political decision-makers of the time, and read it as an allegory of the occupation that followed the suppression of the [Prague Spring](https://www.edgepedia.org/prague-spring).[6](https://www.dhm.de/zeughauskino/en/screening/ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime-10335/)
## Style
The film is Chytilová's most experimental. It opens with a psychedelic, Edenic sequence of layered nature imagery, hand-painted and superimposed by cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera in post-production, blurring optical legibility into haptic effects of flowers, leaves, and forests, accelerating in pace with Zdeněk Liška's experimental score, which mixes and distorts metallic, human, and animal sounds.[9](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/revue/detail/chytilovas-women-through-the-senses) During filming Kučera used masks and copied additionally toned material into the developed negatives, multiplying frames into compositions reminiscent of abstract paintings.[4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise) The Harvard Film Archive notes that Chytilová and Kučera exploited Eastmancolor to its limits in this opening montage of movement and multiple exposure.[10](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/fruit-of-paradise-2026-05/1)
The editing prevents clear temporal and spatial relationships between scenes, and Eva is the only character who transforms: she changes costumes to match the men she meets and her feelings, while Josef stays dull gray-beige and Robert sensual red-black.[9](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/revue/detail/chytilovas-women-through-the-senses) • [4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise) The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival describes the result as a highly stylized blend of detective story, parable, and comedy of morals, and one of the masterpieces of the Czechoslovak New Wave.[11](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/59/37817-fruit-of-paradise)
## Production and censorship
Chytilová made the film with the same team as her earlier *Daisies* (1966): the film designer and screenwriter Ester Krumbachová and the cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera.[11](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/59/37817-fruit-of-paradise) Preparations began only in July 1968, after the official cancellation of censorship, under the newly established Juráček-Kučera group, after difficult negotiations with foreign co-production partners, first Canadian and then Belgian.[4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise) Production companies were Elisabeth Films and Filmové studio Barrandov; the rights holder today is the [National Film Archive](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-archive) in Prague.[5](https://www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/filme/fruit-of-paradise/)
While the film premiered in competition at Cannes in 1970, Czechoslovak authorities decided it would not reach domestic cinemas; the Czech premiere was nevertheless held in July 1970, two months after Cannes. According to Chytilová, unlike other provocative films of the late 1960s it did not end up on a blacklist because no one understood its hidden meaning; reviewers considered it too encrypted.[4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise) [Censorship](https://www.edgepedia.org/censorship) was restored in September 1968, but a film censorship office was established later, which allowed the film to be finished as planned.[4](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise)
## Aftermath and legacy
The film was Chytilová's last work before a seven-year politically imposed hiatus from film production under the normalization policies of Gustáv Husák; in 1970 a "test of values and political beliefs" labeled her *persona non grata*, and she returned to feature directing with *The Apple Game* (1976).[5](https://www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/filme/fruit-of-paradise/) • [12](https://is.muni.cz/el/phil/podzim2023/CMA18/um/reading/Reading_L10_SKUPA_Vera_Chytilova_Perfectly_unpredictable.pdf) The East European Film Bulletin reads the ending as a rejection of the myth of the gullible Eve and of the place of a sexually proactive woman in paradise, and notes the poetic irony that the director herself was cast out of filmmaking for roughly seven years after the film's release.[7](https://eefb.org/retrospectives/vera-chytilovas-fruit-of-paradise-ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime-1970/) Later criticism has often analyzed the film from a feminist standpoint, for its themes of female identity and freedom, and it is regarded as one of the peaks of the Czechoslovak New Wave.[13](https://www.kinobox.cz/film/15239-ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime) The film was shown in the 2018 [Lincoln Center](https://www.edgepedia.org/lincoln-center) series "The Power of the Powerless: Banned Films from the Czechoslovak New Wave" and in a 2022 [Karlovy Vary](https://www.edgepedia.org/karlovy-vary) tribute to the composer Zdeněk Liška.[1](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/fruit-of-paradise/) • [11](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/59/37817-fruit-of-paradise)
## References
1. [Fruit of Paradise, Film at Lincoln Center](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/fruit-of-paradise/)
2. [We Eat the Fruit of the Trees of Paradise, Národní filmový archiv](https://nfa.cz/en/25893-we-eat-the-fruit-of-the-trees-of-paradise)
3. [We Eat the Fruit of the Trees of Paradise (1969), Filmový přehled](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/film/396826/ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime)
4. [Fruit of Paradise, Filmový přehled (print revue PDF)](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/print-revue-pdf/fruit-of-paradise)
5. [Fruit of Paradise, goEast Filmfestival](https://www.filmfestival-goeast.de/en/filme/fruit-of-paradise/)
6. [Ovoce stromů rajských jíme, Zeughauskino, Deutsches Historisches Museum](https://www.dhm.de/zeughauskino/en/screening/ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime-10335/)
7. [Věra Chytilová's Fruit of Paradise (Ovoce stromu rajských jíme, 1970), East European Film Bulletin](https://eefb.org/retrospectives/vera-chytilovas-fruit-of-paradise-ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime-1970/)
8. [Fruit of Paradise, Filmový přehled revue](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/revue/detail/fruit-of-paradise)
9. [Chytilová's women through the senses, Filmový přehled](https://www.filmovyprehled.cz/en/revue/detail/chytilovas-women-through-the-senses)
10. [Fruit of Paradise, Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/fruit-of-paradise-2026-05/1)
11. [Fruit of Paradise, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/59/37817-fruit-of-paradise)
12. [Věra Chytilová: Perfectly unpredictable, Masaryk University reading](https://is.muni.cz/el/phil/podzim2023/CMA18/um/reading/Reading_L10_SKUPA_Vera_Chytilova_Perfectly_unpredictable.pdf)
13. [Ovoce stromů rajských jíme, Kinobox.cz](https://www.kinobox.cz/film/15239-ovoce-stromu-rajskych-jime)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1970s › Released 1970 to 1974*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license