The titular dove is part of a flock of carrier pigeons released in northern France and bound for Germany. The bird loses its way and ends up in Prague where its fate depends on the film’s protagonist, a wheelchair-bound boy. Charting the relationship between the boy, an artist and the young German girl who owns the bird, this allegorical tale is a poetic vision of peace, freedom and friendship across Europe. Released two years after Vláčil’s Venice Film Festival prizewinning short, Clouds of Glass, this was the director’s first feature-length film.

Preceded by Clouds of Glass (1958). Vláčil’s poetic, nearly dialogue-free short concerns the love of flight shared by a boy and an old man.

Both films courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague.