“The Light Penetrates the Dark” (Světlo proniká tmou) is an experimental short film made by Otakar Vávra and František Pilát¹ in 1930 when they were both students at Brno’s technical university. It was inspired by the first public kinetic sculpture (světelná plastika), made by Devětsil artist Zdeněk Pešánek for the facade of the new Edison electrical substation on Jeruzalémská street in Prague, thus earning the nickname “Edisonka.”²

I first watched “The Light Penetrates the Dark” in 2022 at the National Gallery Prague Trade Fair Palace in the permanent exhibition “1918 – 1938: The First Republic.” It is presented in a little screening room next to a model for another one of Pešánek’s kinetic sculptures. I was excited to stumble on Vávra’s first film in an art museum and to see this playful side to him, since I think of Vávra’s movies as serious and depressing.

The film is 4 minutes long, and features shots of sparklers, lightbulbs, electrical towers, and city lights in addition to Pešánek’s sculpture in action. It was originally silent, but the version from German TV that can be found online has a jazzy piano score by Joachim Bärenz. This is a nice touch since the lights on the sculpture were controlled by a piano, seen briefly in the film. As a David Lynch fan (who frequently used electricity as a motif in his work), I’d like to think that Lynch saw this and loved it. Elektřina!

The National Film Archive’s page for Světlo proniká tmou

The National Gallery Prague’s page about Pešánek’s “Edisonka” sculpture

Monoskop wiki about Pešánek’s life and career

1. Pilát went on to do sound for several shorts and features, including Vávra’s “The Magic House” (Kouzelný dům), 1939. ↩︎
2. One of the things I love about Czech language is their love for nicknames. “Edisonka” is a perfect example. ↩︎